If Wilkes University is going to win the Landmark Conference championship, it is going to have to do it the hard way after opening the tournament Friday afternoon with a 6-3 loss to Catholic University at Penn Medicine Park in Lancaster.
Fourth-seeded Catholic (25-16) broke open a 3-3 game with three runs in the top of the ninth to send the top-seeded Colonels to the elimination bracket. Wilkes (28-11) will play either Lycoming or Elizabethtown in an elimination game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The University of Scranton (21-8) will play Catholic at 11 a.m. The loser of that game will come back at 6 p.m. and play either Wilkes or Lycoming.
In the decisive ninth inning for Catholic, Fisher led off with a single up the middle and Jack Bateman was hit by a pitch. The big hit in the inning was a double to left-center by Steve Thomas. An infield single and bases-loaded walk also scored runs.
Catholic took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Dante Pozzi started the inning with a single to left. Sammy Burman singled to right to move Pozzi up to second. After Zach Burton dropped down a sac-bunt to put runners at second and third, Matthew Fisher walked. Jack Bateman hit a sac-fly to right to score Pozzi.
The Cardinals got the leadoff batter on via a base hit to begin the third inning when Thomas singled to left-center. Joe Marini’s base hit put runners on first and second and Mitchell Johnson walked to load the bases. Pozzi grounded into a double play to score Thomas for a 2-0 lead.
Wilkes cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth. Back-to-back doubles from Andres Cruz and Devin Markert produced the first Colonels’ run of the game. Cruz scored on Markert’s double and the Colonels were 90-feet away from tying the game after Jason Cambria grounded out to short with Markert advancing to third on the play. Catholic got out of the inning on a pair of fly outs to left leaving Markert stranded at third.
Trailing, 3-2, going to the bottom of the sixth, Wilkes tied the game when Cambria singled to left and took second on an infield ground out. He took third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice bunt.
The Colonels finished with 11 hits while Catholic had nine. Jack Mathis, Markert and Luke Spencer each had two doubles.
Cody Bosak started on the mound for Catholic and pitched the six innings. Jake Kenney worked the next two to pick up the win. Jack Scholz pitched the ninth to earn the save.
Wilkes used four pitchers with AJ Levanodski pitching the first six innings. Zachary Lloyd tossed two innings before Riley Jagger, who took the loss and Ethan Jezewski pitched in the ninth.
The tournament got off to a late start because of inclement weather Friday morning. The first game of the day between Scranton and Elizabethtown then went 11 innings with the Royals winning, 10-7.
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