4/2/23
 
Lackawanna College Athletics Summary 4-2-23
 
STAFF REPORT – There were two Lackawanna College athletics teams in action on Sunday, April 2^nd, with Lackawanna softball on the road at Monroe College for a doubleheader in New Rochelle, NY, and Lackawanna baseball at home for a doubleheader at Scranton HS against UConn Avery Point.
 
Baseball
Some late inning heroics from Lackawanna College baseball helped the Falcons earn a split against a talented and patient UConn Avery Point team on Sunday afternoon in Scranton. Lackawanna took game one by a 7-6 score in eight innings, thanks to a three-run homerun in the seventh and a walk-off RBI double in the eighth, but the visiting Pointers from Connecticut took game two, 13-5.
 
The Falcons (12-11) trailed game one 6-3 after giving up five runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and had struggled most of the day to get their bats going in a meaningful way. But that all changed when Ian Murphy (West Deptford, NJ) stepped into the batter's box and smashed a game-tying three-run homerun into left-center field, sending the Falcons' dugout into hysterics and the game into extras. Ty Federici (Lehman, PA) came on to pitch in the 8^th and managed to pitch around a one-out single for an important scoreless half inning, and the Falcons cashed in in the bottom frame, as Brayden D'Amico (Bethlehem, PA) launched a one-out pitch over the center fielder's head, skipping to the fence and bringing home the winning run, represented by Giovanni Lopez (Olyphant, PA), to give the Falcons the 7-6 win in extras. Murphy was 2-for-4 with three RBI, all coming on the three-run homer, while Zachary Walsh (Spring Brook Twp, PA) went 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Michael Miller (Lafayette Hill, PA) was 2-for-3 with an RBI double and a run scored. Federici got the win, his first of the year.
 
Aiden Starn (Pennsville, NJ) got the start for the Falcons, and he got Lackawanna going with a 1-2-3 top of the first, including a pair of strikeouts. The Falcons got a leadoff runner thanks to a Walsh single in the bottom half. He moved to second on a stolen base, but the Pointers struck out the side to get out without any damage.
 
The action picked up in the top of the third, still with no score, when a two-out walk from Starn gave UCAP a baserunner. A single put runners on the corners, and a steal at second made it second and third with two outs. A passed ball followed, giving the Pointers the 1-0 advantage as a run came home. Starn got the third out on a fly out to right to limit the damage.
 
The Falcons answered in the bottom frame, when a leadoff walk was followed by a Michael Rickert (Moosic, PA) single to put two on with nobody out. A Walsh walk loaded the bases, and a D'Amico sac fly to center scored one run. Walsh stole second to put runners on second and third, still with one out, but a fly out and a ground out stranded the runners and kept the score at 1-1.
 
Starn worked around a pair of two-out walks in the top of the fourth to strand the runners, and give the Falcons a chance to scored in the bottom of the fourth. Christian Rush (Perkasie, PA) reached on an error to start the inning, and got to second on a steal. Miller delivered him with a smoked RBI double to center field, putting the Falcons ahead, 2-1. Spencer Butz (York, PA) was hit by a pitch, and a passed ball put the runners on second and third, with nobody out. A sac fly from Mitchell Jolikko (Middletown, NY) made it 3-1, Falcons, but a pair of strikeouts looking prevented the Falcons from doing anything else.
 
In the top of the fifth, back-to-back walks from Starn put two on with nobody out. At that point, the Falcons lifted him for reliever Nathan Russell (Drexel Hill, PA). Russell gave up a single that loaded the bases, and a massive RBI double cleared the bases and gave the Pointers the 4-3 lead. Russell got a pair of fly outs to put two away, but an RBI double scored another run and gave UCAP the 5-3 advantage. Russell surrendered another walk and a hit by pitch, but he struck out a batter with the bases loaded to keep things tight.
 
The Falcons got nothing in the bottom of the fifth, and the Pointers added another in the top of the sixth. Jeremy Coleman (Wilmington, DE) came on, and an error, followed by a stolen base, immediately had UCAP in business with nobody out. A ground out advanced the runner, and a sac fly scored him to make it 6-3, Pointers. Coleman got a ground out to get out of the inning.
 
UCAP made a pitching change to start the bottom of the sixth with the 6-3 lead, and Miller led off with a single, but three straight strikeouts kept the Falcons from getting anything happening in the bottom half. Coleman came back out in the top of the seventh, and, after a pair of walks to lead off the inning, he got a strikeout for the first out. A single loaded the bases, but a key fielder's choice eliminated the run at the plate, and another grounder to second ended the inning with no damage, giving the Falcons one last chance in the bottom half.
 
Walsh got things started with a sky-high pop-up in short right field, that landed in between several UCAP fielders. In the confusion, Walsh had already made it to second for the double. A pop out to third put one away, but an Eric Ludwick (Bethlehem, PA) single put runners on the corners and brought the tying run to the plate in Murphy. He wasted little time, getting a hold of a pitch and rocketing it to deep right center field to, improbably, tie the game at 6 and push things into extras.
 
Federici came on in the eighth, and pitched around a one-out single, getting a massive third out when Cole Casamento (Limerick, PA) hosed a runner at second on a steal attempt. That got the Falcons into the bottom frame, and a Lopez one-out single gave Lackawanna the go-ahead run on the base paths. A strikeout put two away, and that's when D'Amico, batting right handed against the lefty reliever, blasted a shot over the center fielder to push Lopez home and give the Falcons the improbable win.
 
Game two was much different, as Lackawanna struggled to stick with the patient Pointers (11-6). The Falcons committed five errors, surrendered eleven walks, and threw five wild pitches, while hitting four batters. Five runs came directly as a result of those Falcon mistakes. The low-light was a disastrous third inning, where starter Devin Fletcher (Bethlehem, PA) handed out three walks, hit three batters, and had two wild pitches, which turned a 1-0 deficit into a 6-0 hole. A pitching change followed, but a bases-loaded triple, plus an error that brought the fourth run home, made it 10-0, Pointers. The Falcons scored four in the fifth to cut a 13-1 deficit to 13-5, highlighted by a three-run double from Murphy, but there wasn't enough offense to go around for the Falcons to make another run. Murphy finished 1-for-2 with three RBI, while Walsh was 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored. Fletcher got tagged with the loss.
 
UCAP got the scoring started in game two in the first inning, taking advantage of a leadoff walk, a stolen base, and a wild pitch to make it 1-0. Fletcher was in a jam with runners on first and second and two outs, but got a big swinging strikeout to end the threat.
 
In the top of the second, UCAP threatened again with a pair of baserunners on second and third and two outs, but, once again, Fletcher found a big strikeout to keep the Pointers off the board.
 
The top of the third was not as kind to the Falcons. A leadoff single, followed by a walk, immediately put two on with nobody out. A hit batter loaded the bases, and another plunked Pointer brought a run home at 2-0, and still had the bases loaded with nobody out. A two-run single made it 4-0, and a wild pitch brought another run home. A walk, followed by a strikeout from Fletcher, had it at first and second with one out, when a wild pitch put runners at second and third. A nifty play at second from Lopez held the runners and got the second out on a ground ball, but another hit batter loaded the bases. Another walk brought the run home, and ended Fletcher's day. Brandon Holzinger (Bethlehem, PA) came on to try to stem the bleeding. Holzinger was rudely greeted with a triple launched into right field, clearing the bases and, in a play that typified the day for the Falcons, an error on the throw to third allowed the fourth run to score and allow UCAP to crack double-digits. Holzinger eventually got a ground out to get out of the inning.
 
The Falcons were quiet in the bottom of the third, and Avery Point added another run in the top of the fourth. A double started the inning off, and was immediately cashed in on an error on the base paths to make it 11-0, Pointers. UCAP got back-to-back singles, but a snafu running the bases led to a double-play where runners got tangled up at second and third. The Pointers put runners on second and third again after a walk and a double steal, but a fly out for Holzinger got the Falcons out of trouble.
 
Lackawanna got one back in the bottom frame, when a pair of hit-by-pitches put two runners on with nobody out. An error on a flip from short to second allowed Rush to reach and brought a run home, but a base running error from the Falcons cost them an out on the bases. Rush stole second, but back-to-back strikeouts erased any hopes of a multi-run rally from the Falcons.
 
Matthew McElligott (Columbus, OH) came on in the top of the fifth for the Falcons, and it looked like, after a walk and stolen base had a runner on with one out, a strikeout was the second out of the inning, but a dropped third strike rolled away from the plate, putting two on for Avery Point. A walk loaded the bases, but McElligott got a strikeout to put two away. He wouldn't get out unscathed, however, when a single to right scored a pair, with help from an error in the outfield on the throw in to third, pushing the Pointers' lead to 13-1.
 
Needing to score runs to keep the game going, A Casamento leadoff single, followed by a Ranciel Ventura (Allentown, PA) double, put runners on second and third with nobody out. A Walsh RBI single gave the Falcons their second run of the day, and a D'Amico single almost loaded the bases, but Ventura was caught straying on the base paths after a wild pitch, and run down by the UCAP catcher for the first out. A walk loaded the bases, and in stepped Ian Murphy, who delivered another multi-run hit with a three-run double to the left-center gap that cut the lead to 13-5. Still with one out, the Falcons were hoping for a few more runs to push across, but a pop up, followed by a ground out, cut the Falcons rally short.
 
That would be it for action, outside of a UCAP walk in the seventh, as neither team could get anything going, and the Pointers got a pair of strikeouts to end the Falcons in the bottom of the seventh, helping UCAP earn the split for the doubleheader.
 
Lackawanna College gets back to work on Tuesday, April 4^th, at home, when they are set to host Lehigh Carbon CC in a Region XIX DII match-up. The game is set for a 3:00pm ET first pitch at Scranton HS's baseball field.