CENTER VALLEY, PA. – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team closed out a three-game Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom sweep of DeSales Monday evening with 5-4 and 7-3 victories, moving to a season-best eight games over .500 (19-11) and 14-1 in conference play.
HOW IT HAPPENED – GAME 1
With the game scoreless in the top of the second,
Liam DeRubertis led off with a bunt single, then came all the way around to score on a
Chip Krese double just inside the left field line.
Jack Reichlin followed with a two-run shot to left, staking starting pitcher
Jordan Fisse to a three-run lead.
DeSales got two runs back in the bottom of the third and had the bases loaded with two out, but Fisse induced a pop out to keep the Ducks in front.
In the top of the fifth,
Colby Ching and
Eli Somers sandwiched singles around a Victor Shilleci walk, loading the bases for
Dylan Fishbough, who plated Ching and Shilleci with a single to center, putting Stevens back up by three.
The Bulldogs got two back in the sixth, but stranded the tying run at second on a
David Finch strikeout, then Finch struck out two more in the seventh, closing out his fourth save of the year.
HOW IT HAPPENED – GAME 2
Singles by Somers and Fishbough ahead of a DeRubertis walk and Krese bases loaded hit by pitch gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead in the first. After DeSales knotted the game in the second, DeRubertis and Shilleci broke the game open early the following inning.
Somers and Fishbough each reached on errors to open the inning and DeRubertis made the Bulldogs pay for the mistakes with a three-run homer on the first pitch of the ensuing at-bat. The big inning continued with a Krese infield single and a Reichlin hit by pitch before Villares sacrificed them both into scoring position. After a
Kieran O'Brien hit by pitch loaded the bases and a wild pitch scored Krese,
Aaron Wong reached on a fielder's choice with Reichlin being thrown out at the plate. With two on and two out, Shilleci doubled to right, driving home Wong and O'Brien, capping the Ducks' six-run frame.
DeSales got one back in the fourth and one back in the eighth, but Stevens starting pitcher
Justin Doyle went six innings, yielding just two runs and the trio of
Joe Gonzalez,
Matt Villapiano, and
Jacob Buurman each tossed one inning of relief, allowing a single base runner between them while striking out three.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- After 23 games between the two teams, the Ducks swept a doubleheader in Center Valley for the first time since the third and fourth games all time back in the 2015 season..
- Fishbough increased his hitting streak to nine games, during which time he's hitting .400 (14-for-35) with six runs and four extra-base hits.
- Krese hit safely in both games, making it seven times in his last eight games he's recorded a hit after missing nearly a month.
- Finch's three strikeouts during his four-out Game 1 save gave him 25 in 17.1 innings of work this season, a rate of 13.2 strikeouts-per-nine-innings.
- Gonzalez made his 18th appearance of the year, a team-high, and his 60th as a Duck.
UP NEXT
The Ducks will be right back on the diamond tomorrow afternoon against NJCU, with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
#AllRise
