After using 11 pitchers in splitting a pair of games Friday on the first day of the Landmark Conference tournament, Elizabethtown College used its bats to survive and advance to have the chance to play for a conference championship.
The Blue Jays had 12 hits and overcame a four-run deficit after four innings and a two-run deficit after six innings to defeat No. 1 seed Wilkes, 8-6, to earn the right to have the opportunity to play Catholic for the conference championship.
Wilkes came into the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed but lost to Catholic in its first game Friday afternoon. That sent the Colonels to an elimination game Saturday afternoon at Penn Medicine Park in Lancaster against the Blue Jays, who lost to Scranton on Friday, 10-7 in 11 innings and came back Friday night to beat Lycoming, 15-5, in a game they trailed, 5-0, before scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Wilkes scored four runs in the bottom of the third when Matthew Show reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. Nathan Loch and Jack Mathis both walked to load the bases. Luke Spencer singled to right to bring home two runs. Mathis scored on the backend of a double steal and Andres Cruz singled in a run to make it 4-0.
Hunter Lawall started for Wilkes and pitched the first five innings. He allowed four hits and four earned runs. He ran into trouble in the fifth inning when he allowed three straight batters to reach base with one out. Nick Fiorini walked, Alex Perrin and David Wooley each singled. Wooley’s single scored Fiorini. After a Mason Woolwine sac-fly cut the lead to 4-1 and a base open after Wooley stole second, the Colonels elected to pitch to No. 3 hitter Quinten Perilli, who hit a three-run homer to right-center to tie the game, 4-4.
Wilkes answered in the bottom of the sixth with two runs after Devin Markert walked to begin the inning and scored on a Gavin Lacoe single to right. Matthew Show’s sacrifice fly scored Jacob Cambria to put the Colonels ahead, 6-4.
Elizabethtown scored three times in the top of the seventh on RBI singles from Perilli and RJ Agriss and a fielder’s choice to short by Sawyer Martin. The Blue Jays added an insurance run in the eighth when Wooley hit a sac-fly to center to score Fiorini, who singled with one out in the inning.
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