Wilkes Baseball Splits Wild Doubleheader with Eastern
KINGSTON – The Wilkes University baseball team won game one 6-0 in its Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) doubleheader with Eastern University before staging a five-run comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning, ultimately falling 11-10 in eight innings in game two on Saturday afternoon.
The Colonels now stand 2-3 in conference and 5-10 overall.
The story of game one was the pitching of JT Hibschman (Millville, NJ/Millville), who shut down Eastern's bats for 5.2 innings, allowing four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Andrew Indzonka (New Windsor, NY/Our Lady of Lourdes) earned his third save of the season pitching a clean final 1.1 innings.
Wilkes' offense was stagnant for the first four innings, but found its groove in the bottom of the fifth with two runs to break a scoreless tie. Jack Fischer (River Vale, NJ/Pascack Valley) brought home Vinny Bobbin (Schuylkill Haven, PA/Blue Mountain) with a single to right, stole second, and came in to score on Nicholas Capozzi's (Syracuse, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) run-scoring single.
The Colonels added on with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, with the big hit a towering home run to left off the bat of Jonah Harder (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool). Bobbin followed with a walk, Matt Reinert (Telford, PA/Souderton) launched a double to put runners at second and third, and Michael Patrizio (Belle Mead, NJ/Montgomery) singled up the middle bringing home Bobbin. Patrizio and Reinert then pulled of a double steal allowing Reinert to score. Following a groundout that moved Patrizio to third, he came in to score when the Eagles' catcher threw away a throw back to the pitcher to finish the scoring.
Seven different Wilkes hitters finished with one hit while Patrizio, Fischer, Capozzi, and Harder each drove in a run in the first game.
Game number two was a different script as both teams exploded for 21 runs. The Eagles opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the second.
The Colonels tied the game in the bottom of the second when Harder started a two-out rally with a walk and a steal of second before Bobbin was hit by a pitch. Reinert followed with a single to right-center that scored Harder and moved Bobbin to third before Reinert and Bobbin pulled off another double-steal.
Eastern retook the lead with two runs in the top of the third.
Capozzi trimmed the lead to one in the bottom of the third with a solo home run to left.
The Eagles responded in the top of the fourth with two runs on one hit, two walks, and a hit-by-pitch. Eastern added a run in the top of the fifth to make the score 7-3 but Fischer and Capozzi hit back-to-back doubles to make the score 7-4 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Eagles pushed their lead to 9-4 in the top of the seventh on two-run double.
Wilkes staged a frantic comeback in the bottom of the seventh, crossing the plate five times to tie the score. With the score 9-7 and two outs in the inning, Brady Wing (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter and hit a 3-2 fastball back up the middle to bring home Nick Pronti (Wood-Ridge, NJ/Wood-Ridge) and Jack Hines (Hawthorne, NJ/Hawthorne) to send the contest into extra innings.
A run-scoring single and a solo home run put Eastern up 11-9 in the top of the eighth.
The Colonels pushed one run across with the aid of two Eagle errors, but Wilkes was unable to complete a second comeback in the bottom of the inning, leaving the tying run on second base.
Indzonka fell to 0-2 in the second game, allowing one run on two hits in 0.2 innings.
Pronti led the Colonels at the plate in the nightcap, going 3-for-5 with one run and one RBI while Capozzi went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI's.
Wilkes will complete the MAC Freedom series with Eastern on Tuesday when the teams will play the nine-inning game in St. David's on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
