HOBOKEN, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team advanced to next weekend's Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Championship Series on Sunday afternoon, defeating Lebanon Valley 14-4, then 16-5, taking the best-of-3 series two games to one.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Lebanon Valley (22-20-1) scored twice in the second of the opening game Sunday after Stevens (28-14) stranded the bases loaded in the first, but the Ducks bats came alive in the third. After
Victor Schilleci and
Eli Somers led off with singles,
Dylan Fishbough put Stevens in front with one swing, launching just his second home run of the year well over the right-center field wall. Fishbough's homer was just a sign of things to come from the Ducks' offense the rest of the day.
In the fourth,
Frank Tonina singled, Schilleci was hit by a pitch, and Somers walked, again loadsing the bases, this time with nobody out. After Fishbough singled home Tonina and
Liam DeRubertis plated Schilleci with a sacrifice fly,
Chip Krese broke the game open with a three-run homer to right. The Ducks tacked on two more in what became a seven-run, 13-batter inning on a Tonina sacrifice fly and Somers RBI single.
Stevens put a third straight crooked number on the board in the fifth. DeRubertis doubled, Krese singled, and
Jack Reichlin reached on a drop fly ball, scoring DeRubertis. After
Kieran O'Brien walked to (again) load the bases for the Ducks, Tonina reached on a fielder's choice, with a throwing error plating two more. O'Brien later scored the Ducks' fourth run of the inning, putting them up 14-2.
The Dutchmen pushed two across (one unearned) in the seventh, but
Jonah Swarts closed out a nine-out save with four strikeouts without issuing a walk, sending the series to a win-or-go-home game.
Schilleci, Somers, Fishbough, and Krese all finished with two hits and two runs.
After going scoreless over the final three innings of the first game of the day, the Ducks bats came roaring back to life early in the second game. Trailing 2-0 after a half-inning, Schilleci led off with a walk ahead of a Somers single. Two batters later, DeRubertis singled in Schilleci, with Somers coming home on a throwing error. Krese followed with a single scoring DeRubertis, putting Stevens on top 3-2.
In the second, Somers followed a Schilleci walk with a two-run homer to right. Fishbough followed Somers with a double, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a DeRubertis fielder's choice. Krese followed with his second game-breaking homer of the day, putting the stamp on a five-run frame for an 8-2 Stevens lead. After 2.5 scoreless frames, Tonina added a solo homer in the fifth.
The teams traded two-run sixths, with Schilleci leading off with a homer and DeRubertis doubling, then scoring on a Krese single. The Ducks then blew the doors off in the seventh, the big swing coming on a DeRubertis three-run double.
Each side tacked on a run in the eighth, then
Joe Gonzalez closed out the win and the series in the ninth.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Schilleci's solo shot in Game 2 Sunday tied the program single-season record for home runs (10).
- As a team, the Ducks' four homers in Game 2 were a single game high for the season.
- Somers ran his hitting streak to 15 games, during which time he's batting .500 (28-for-56) with six doubles, two triples, and four homers.
- Gonzalez's four innings of relief in Game 2 tied his season and career-high for longest outing.
- Krese finished the day with seven RBI's, DeRubertis finished with six, the two accounting for nearly half of the team's total.
UP NEXT
The Ducks will host Arcadia in the best of-three Final at Dobbelaar Field starting next Friday, with the winning team earning the league auto-bid to the D-III NCAA Tournament. Arcadia advanced with a sweep of Misericordia in the other semifinal.
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