FORT PIERCE (FL) – Head Coach
John Love earned his first career victory at the helm as the Delaware Valley University baseball team kicked off its spring break trip with a doubleheader split against Cairn University. The Aggies dropped game one, 12-7, but bounced back nicely with a 10-7 triumph in the night cap.
The opener saw the Highlanders (3-1) jump out to an early 2-0 lead after Brian Amantia Jr. homered to right center field in the first inning and Caleb Edman picked up an RBI in the second with a sacrifice fly to center field.
DelVal (1-2) responded in the third inning to take its first lead of the game.
Luke Hendricks got it started with an RBI single to center and
Will Mitchell followed with a single to left field that drove in
Luke Hendricks and
Troy Lachenmayer to make the score 3-2.
Cairn got one back in the third, but
Timmy Lallis drove in two for the Aggies in the fourth inning as they maintained a 5-3 lead going into the fifth.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Highlanders scored five times to regain the lead, 8-5. Michael Sorowice had the big knock in the frame with a two-out bases clearing double down the right field line.
DelVal scored once in the sixth and once more in the seventh, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit as Cairn held on for the 12-7 win in the opener.
Sophomore Ben Spadea pitched two innings and allowed just two runs to earn his first career victory.
Cody Brown (0-1) pitched five innings and allowed eight runs while striking out three in the loss.
Junior first baseman Mitchell, left midway through the game with a lower body injury. When asked about the loss of Mitchell, Coach Love stated, "It's a tough loss, Will (Mitchell) battled as hard as anyone on the team and really forced his way into the starting lineup".
Looking to respond to the tough loss, the Aggies initially went down by two runs early in game two, but put up six runs in the third inning to open up a commanding 6-2 lead.
Lallis got the rally started with an RBI single up the middle that scored DeLaRosa. Later in the frame, with the bases loaded, junior
Ryan Schuetrumpf laced a double to left field to bring
Tom Crooks,
Neal Flogel, and Lallis all around to score to make it 6-2.
The Aggies scored three more times in the fourth and once more in the fifth while holding off a late charge by Cairn to secure the 10-7 victory.
Senior
Hunter Mease (1-0) pitched 5.2 innings allowing six runs (four earned), seven hits, and three walks while striking out five. Sophomore
Brice Messick came on in relief to close the game with 1.1 innings of work.
Despite going 0-for-3 in the opener, Schuetrumpf went 2-for-3 with five RBIs and two runs scored in the night cap. Lallis finished the day 3-for-7 with three walks, three RBIs, and two runs scored and Crooks was a combined 4-for-8 with three runs scored.
The Highlanders were led by Brett Marks 4-for-4 effort with three RBIs and two runs scored in game two.
DelVal will continue its spring break trip tomorrow with a doubleheader against Norwich University beginning at 11 a.m.
