EDWARDSVILLE – The Wilkes baseball team bested Lycoming College 2-0 in their Landmark Conference matchup on Wednesday afternoon at Bruggeworth Field behind six shutout innings from starting pitcher Zachary Lloyd (Scranton, PA/West Scranton). 

The Colonels improved to 15-3 on the season and built their conference record up to 6-2. The Warriors dropped to 4-15 overall and 1-7 in Landmark competitions.

Lloyd took the mound in his seventh appearance of the season and retired the side in the first with a swinging strikeout and two fly-outs to Jimmy Brazofsky (Park Ridge, NJ/Park Ridge) in right field and Mike Show (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights) in center. He pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the second with two fly-outs and a ground-out to third baseman Luke Spencer (Lehman, PA/Lake Lehman).

Despite making good contact in the bottom half of the inning, batted balls from Brazofsky, Max Alessi (Wallenpaupack, PA/Wallenpaupack) and Jacob Cambria (Elysburg, PA/Southern Columbia) all found the gloves of Lycoming's fielders.

An unassisted putout by first baseman Zack Luksic (Shavertown, PA/Dallas) started off the third inning before Lloyd allowed his first base runner of the afternoon on a walk. He quickly recovered with a pair of swinging strikeouts to end Lycoming's threat.

Wilkes continued to put the bat on the ball in the third and fourth innings, but the fly-outs continued to pile up for the Colonels. 

Lloyd held down the fort on the bump in the fifth, getting three-straight Warriors to fly out to left field Connor Morgan (Lehman, PA/Lake Lehman). 

The Colonels picked up their first base hit of the game in the bottom half of the fifth frame when Brazofsky recorded a leadoff single up the middle. He advanced to second on a sac-bunt by Alessi, however a strikeout and groundout back to the pitcher kept the Blue and Gold off the board. After five full innings of play, the contest remained locked in a scoreless tie.

 Lloyd took the ball for his sixth inning of work and got the leadoff batter to fly out to right. Later in the inning, the first-year righthander tossed himself out of a two-out, bases-loaded jam by fanning the Lycoming batter for the third out. 

Second baseman Nate Loch reached safely on a single to center field before swiftly stealing second base to move 90 feet closer to scoring. Mi. Show came up to bat and reached on a throwing error by the third baseman that sailed to the first base-side fence, allowing Loch to score from second. Loch represented the first run of the ballgame and gave the Colonels a 1-0 lead.

Senior righty Ryan Sanderson (West Caldwell, NJ/James Caldwell) came on in relief of Lloyd in the seventh and escaped a first-and-second situation with a 6-4-3 double play ball to end the inning without any damage.

The Colonels tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh as Chase Vrabel (Gibsonia, PA/Pine Richland) crushed a pinch hit double to right field, knocking in Brazofsky from second. Wilkes possessed a 2-0 lead heading into the eighth.

Sanderson returned for his second inning of duty and fanned the leadoff batter before putting two batters on the basepaths with walks. Mi. Show came in from center field to relieve Sanderson and got the first two batters he faced to strike out swinging and fly out to Ryan Ruddy (Roaring Brook Township, PA/North Pocono) in center. Mi. Show took the mound once again in the top of the ninth and got a pair of groundouts before the third batter of the inning flied out to Evan Melberger (West Pittston, PA/Wyoming Area) in right to end the game.

Lloyd picked up his fourth win of the season, improving his record to 4-1. He punched out five batters while only allowing one hit through 6.0. Mi. Show and Vrabel both tallied an RBI while Brazofsky led the team with two hits.

Zac Laller was charged with the loss, falling to 0-5. Shortstop Jack Kelly recorded the lone hit of the afternoon for Lycoming as Danny DeLucas worked a pair of walks. 

The Colonels return to Bruggeworth Field on Thursday, March 28 when they host Penn College for a 3:30 non-conference showdown with the Wildcats.