ELIZABETHTHOWN COLLEGE BASEBALL
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Elizabethtown Holds On For 6-4 Win over Rowan

Click here for the box score

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College survived a ninth-inning rally to pick up a 6-4 victory over Rowan University in non-conference action at Boyd Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

Elizabethtown fell behind early as Rowan scored in the top half of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. In the third, the Profs had two on with one out but sophomore Rodney Francis (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) had a diving catch on the warning track and put out to 2nd for a rally killing double play.

The Blue Jay bats rallied behind the defensive play of Francis, as sophomore Matt Vinagro (Fredericksburg, VA/Stafford) led off the bottom half of the third with a double, a sacrifice bunt moved Vinagro to third, and junior Adam Sheibley (Landisburg, PA/West Perry) followed with a single tie the game at 1-1.

Sheibley stole second and scored on a two-out error, and senior Jared Auman (Northumberland, PA/ Shikellamy) doubled home junior Sam Heaps (Landenberg, PA/Avon Grove) to give the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead.

Elizabethtown added three more insurance runs in the seventh inning.  Francis walked to start the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Auman singled to put Blue Jay runners on the corners.  Senior Brandon Watson (Philadephia, PA/Central) drilled a triple to deep left center scoring Francis and Auman, while an errant throw to third allowed Watson to trot home to give the Blue Jays a 6-1 lead.

Rowan pushed across two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth, but junior Dan Lauletta (Landenburg, PA/Avon Grove) came on and induced a  deep fly ball out to earn his first save of the year. 

Sophomore Ryan Barrett (Knox, PA/Keystone) who came on to pitch in the fourth, shut down the bats of Rowan by tossing 4 1/3 innings and allowing just two hits and two runs to earn the win for Elizabethtown.

Watson and Auman each went 2-for-4 for the Blue Jays, while Sheibley finished 2-for-5 and recorded the 100th hit of his career in the fourth inning.

John McMullin went 2-for-4 for the Profs (18-8 overall) and Tom Reindel finished 2-for-3 as both teams finished with nine hits in the contest.

Elizabethtown Coll. 6, Rowan University 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rowan University.... 100 000 021 - 4 9 2 (18-8)
Elizabethtown Coll.. 003 000 30x - 6 9 0 (13-8)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Zagyi, Mike Sweitanski (5) and Dan Krause; Kurt Smith, Ryan Barrett (4), Chris Minakowski (8), Dan Lauletta (9) and Tom Semanek. WP-Barrett (1-1). LP-Zagyi (0-1). SO-BB: Zagyi 2-3, Swietanski 5-2; Smith 1-2, Barrett 1-1, Minakowski 0-3, Lauletta 0-0.