AUBURNDALE, FL - The Cabrini baseball team picked up their third consecutive victory this afternoon following a 6-1 win over the Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers.
The Cavs received a strong start from sophomore
Ray Lutick on the bump. The righty tossed six innings and allowed just four hits and one earned run, while striking out six, en route to his first victory of the season. Junior
Ivan Varela, freshman
Mike Gama and senior
Tyler Ronayne combined for three hitless innings out of the pen, keeping the Rose-Hulman offense at bay.
Freshman
Garrett Laraia led the offense as the shortstop finished 1-2 with three RBI's and a pair of walks. Sophomore's
Mack McKisson and
JD Barrett also tallied RBI's, while senior
Tyler Norris extended his hitting streak to a modest four games and also drove in a run. In total, the Cabrini offense stuck for just five hits, all singles, but they tied a season high with 11 free passes (nine walks, two HBP).
Despite being no-hit through the first four innings, the Blue and White struck first in the bottom of the fifth. Following an Aurite walk and subsequent balk by the Rose-Hulman pitcher to start the frame, McKisson singled to break up the no-hitter and put runners on first and third with nobody out.
A sacrifice fly from Laraia handed the Diamond Cavs a 1-0 lead. Norris capped the inning with an RBI single to plate McKisson.
Following a 1-2-3 top of the sixth from Lutick, the Cavalier offense took advantage of two errors in the bottom half of the inning to push their lead to 5-0. Before being pulled, Hulman starter Trever Bruno loaded the bases following a walk, error and hit batter. McKisson would drive home the inning's first run thanks to another error, this time by the third baseman. A bases loaded walk from Laraia and a sac fly from Barrett would push the Cavalier lead to 5-0.
The Fightin' Engineers would get one back in the top of the seventh thanks to a sac fly from Luke Calabrese, but Varela navigated nicely out of a jam to keep the Cabrini lead at four runs.
The Blue and White would tack on an insurance run in the eighth, courtesy of a Laraia single, en route to the eventual 6-1 final.
As mentioned, the Cavaliers pick up their third consecutive victory after today's 6-1 win and improve to 6-2 overall. They'll look to extend their streak to four games on Friday, March 1st when they take on Alma College at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, FL. First pitch is slated for 11am.
