RADNOR, PA - The Cavaliers christened their new field with a 12-6 win over rival Eastern University thanks to an offensive outburst. The Blue and White hung 12 runs on the Eagles in a shortened seven inning game (darkness) and struck for seven in the fifth inning alone to climb back over the .500 mark. With the win, the Cavs move to 5-4 on the young season.
The Cavaliers found production from top to bottom in their lineup as six different players record at least one RBI in this afternoon's game.
Tyler Norris paced the Cavs as the sophomore finished the day 3-3 with two runs, two RBI's and a walk for good measure.
Erick Vicario continued to be an effective table setter as he reached base four times and came around to score all but once, finishing 2-3 with three runs and two walks.
Jake Dohar toed the rubber for the Blue and White and pitched 5.1 effective innings, allowing seven hits, four earned, while also striking out two. The lefty's efforts earned him his second win of the season.
The Cavaliers opened up the scoring in the bottom half of the second as Norris worked out a walk and was able to move into scoring position after a throwing error by the pitcher on a pick off attempt. After a
Casey Plunkett walk,
Jesse James Murphy laid down a sac bunt to advance the runners to second and third with only one out. Alex DelGiudice was able to hit it just far enough for the sac fly and bring home Norris for the games first run.
The Eagles responded as they were able to rack up five hits in their half of the inning and push across three runs to take the 3-1 lead.
It wasn't until the bottom of the fifth that the Blue and White would retake the lead courtesy of a seven run half inning. DelGiudice started things off with a double to left center as Dohar followed that up with a walk to put runners on first and second. Trying to lay down a sacrifice,
Shaun Stackhouse popped out to the pitcher for the innings first out. Stackhouse's failed sacrifice ended up being inconsequential as Vicario worked a walk to load the bases. A fielding error by the shortstop allowed the Cav's next hitter,
Dylan Butler, to reach safely on what should have been a routine grounder and potentially an inning ending double play. Instead, it allowed Vicario and Dohar to score and extended the inning in the Cav's favor. A single up the middle from Norris gave the lead back to the Cavs at 4-3 and a two RBI single from Murphy pushed the lead to 6-3. The Cavaliers would reload the bases after
Michael Mescia singled down the left field line and DelGiudice was hit by a pitch. With the chance every pitcher dreams of, to help themselves in the batters box, Dohar stepped to the plate and cushioned his own lead with a two out, two RBI single to center.
The Cavs would end the fifth inning with an 8-3 lead.
Eastern's Timmy Gorton was able to get one back for the Eagles in the top of the sixth with an RBI single up the middle off of
Josh Breittholz, who came on in relief of Dohar.
The Cavaliers and Eagles swapped two runs in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, respectively to make it 10-6 heading into what would be the game's final inning.
The Cavs collected their final two runs in rather thrilling fashion as Dohar took advantage of the opposing pitcher simply not paying attention and stole home followed by a play at the plate where Vicario seemed to have his foot blocked by the catcher at home on a slide attempt, but the Eagles catcher never applied the tag as Vicario was able to casually step on the plate and score.
As mentioned, the game was called after the seventh inning due to darkness. The Blue and White will next travel to Pittsburgh as they take on Pitt-Greensburg this Saturday, March 11 for a double header beginning at 12:30pm.
