LANCASTER, Pa. - The Wilkes University baseball team saw their season come to an end at the hands of the Elizabethtown College Blue Jays by a score of 12-6 Friday afternoon at Penn Medicine Park.
The Colonels finish the 2026 season with a final record of 25-17, while the Blue Jays take on Drew in another elimination game later tonight. The winner of that game will advance to Saturday to play the loser of the Scranton vs. Susquehanna matchup.
Just three batters into the game, the Blue Jays took an early lead. David Woolley started the game with a walk, and Nick Fiorini hit a two-run home run two batters later to give them a 2-0 lead. The Colonels failed to score in the bottom of the inning, and the Blue Jays kept their foot on the gas with a five-run second.
A hit by pitch and two walks loaded the bases with just one out, causing Ethan Grodack (Lake Ariel, PA/Western Wayne) to come out of the bullpen to relieve Colonel starter Mike Show (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights). Grodack allowed an RBI single to Mason Woolwine to make it 3-0, and a sacrifice fly and another hit by pitch made it a 5-0 game. Parker Summers capped off the inning with a two-RBI double, giving Elizabethtown a commanding 7-0 lead.
The Blue Jays tacked on another run in the top of third on another sacrifice fly, but the Colonels finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. A Tyler Uram (Carbondale Twp, PA/Lakeland) walk, a Gannon Decker (Hawley, PA/Wallenpaupack Area) single, and a Jake Miller (Chambersburg, PA/James Buchanan) RBI single up the middle made it 8-1. The team's second run came in on a balk from Blue Jays starter Logan Burns.Â
With the deficit cut to six, Elizabethtown got the two runs back in the very next inning. They led off the inning with five consecutive hits, the final one being a two-RBI double from Woolwine. Wilkes scored a run in the bottom of the frame on a wild pitch to make it 10-3 after a pair of walks got runners on base.
Frome there, the Blue Jays scored two more runs in the top of the ninth, while Wilkes added on three runs in the bottom of the ninth to reach the final score of 12-6. Burns got the win for Elizabethtown on the mound, pitching five innings and allowing three earned runs, four hits, seven walks, and striking out four batters. Show took the loss for the Colonels, going just 1.1 innings and allowing five earned runs off two hits and three walks.Â
Jake Ruple led the Blue Jays in hits by going 3-4 at the plate with one RBI. He hit two singles and a solo home run in the top of the ninth. Woolwine led the team in RBIs with three. Meanwhile for the Colonels, Nathan Loch (Effort, PA/Pleasant Valley) and Decker each had two hits. Loch went 2-3 and Decker went 2-4.
The Colonels return to the diamond next Spring in 2027.
