At La Plume, Keystone College baseball clinched its 20th straight conference championship and its second United East title, after defeating Penn State Harrisburg, 6-3, on Sunday.
With the championship victory, Keystone (35-9) punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III Tournament with an automatic bid. The Giants’ opponent will be announced Monday afternoon.
Penn State Harrisburg scored first, with a solo home run in the third inning. Keystone responded in the fourth inning, as Andy Rivas hit a two-RBI single and Hunter Rauch had an RBI single to put the Giants up, 3-1.
In the fifth inning, Keystone added two more runs to increase its lead to 6-1.
The Nittany Lions hit a two-run single in the eighth inning, but Keystone’s advantage was ultimately impossible to overcome. The Giants closed out the ninth inning, taking down Penn State Harrisburg’s batters in order.
Rivas was named the United East Tournament MVP, finishing the championship final with three RBIs. Carlos Pascual paced the Keystone offense with two hits.
Leam Powell earned the win, striking out three batters over seven innings. Dylan Byler pitched the rest of the game, also compiling three strikeouts.
Catholic 5, Scranton 3: At Lancaster, Catholic University did all of its scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning and defeated the University of Scranton to capture the Landmark Conference championship at Penn Medicine Park.
Sam Fairhurst and two relievers combined to limit the Royals to nine hits and help the Cardinals earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
Scranton (22-20) needed to beat Catholic twice Sunday to win in the double-elimination tournament and jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.
In the top of the first, Conor Campbell walked with two outs, stole second and scored on a single by John Heitzman. Then, in the top of the fourth, Heitzman led off with a home run.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Catholic loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Following a pitching change, a passed ball allowed one run to score. Jack Bateman then lofted a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 2-2.
A walk and a stolen base led to another pitching change for Scranton. An intentional walk loaded the bases and Joe Marini hit a sacrifice fly to put the Cardinals on top, 3-2. Justin McCarthy scored on the back end of a double steal to make it 4-2 and Mitchel Johnson’s RBI single capped the inning.
The Royals tried to rally in the top of the eighth. With two outs, Heitzman and Campbell singled and, after a pitching change, Matthew Querey walked to load the bases. Pat Coyne singled to cut the deficit to 5-3. But Jake Kenney got a flyout to end the threat.
Jack Scholz came on for Catholic in the ninth and retired Scranton in order to nail down the win and the title.
To advance to Sunday’s final, the Royals rallied for a wild 18-15 win over Elizabethtown College on Saturday night. It was a 4-hour, 4-minute marathon that saw the teams combine to use 15 pitchers.
Scranton overcame a 9-4 deficit with five runs in the top of the fourth inning. Then after Elizabethtown rebuilt a 14-10 lead, Scranton erupted for six runs with two outs in the seventh inning to move in front for good.
Heitzman had four hits, including three home runs, and six RBIs to lead the Royals. He had a two-run home run in the first, a three-run blast in the fourth and a solo shot in the sixth.
Women’s lacrosse
At Weiss Field, No. 2 ranked Tufts University bounced the University of Scranton from the NCAA Division III tournament with a 17-5 second-round win.
The Jumbos jumped out to a 7-1 lead after one quarter and never looked back on their way to advancing to the quarterfinals against either Pomona-Pitzer or Colorado College.
Margie Carden and Caroline Conaghan each had three goals for Tufts (19-1).
Jillian Lopez led Scranton with three goals. Grace Lane and Erin Reich added one apiece for the Royals (15-6), who had a 13-game winning streak stopped.
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