SCRANTON, Pa. --- The Moravian College baseball team closed out its 2014 Landmark Conference regular season with a 9-3 loss at The University of Scranton Monday at Connell Park; however, the Greyhounds have protested the game.
The line-up card turned it by the Royals had one starting shortstop but Anthony Pilvosky actually started the game after an injury during the pregame warm-ups. After Pilvosky doubled to lead off the sixth inning, Moravian Head Coach Paul Engelhardt protested the game since Pilvosky have never been reported into the game as a starter or defensive substitute.
The Greyhounds finish their Landmark slate at 14-4, and the squad has already locked up the top seed in the 2014 Landmark Tournament that will be held at Gillespie Field on May 3-5. Moravian, ranked 29th in last week's American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball poll, saw their five-game winning streak snapped as the Hounds fall to 26-7 overall.
Moravian jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning when freshman left fielder Anthony Gaetaniello started the game with a double and junior right fielder Matt Hanson connected on a two-run homer to right field, his team-leading third homer of the season and second in as many games versus the Royals.
The game was the sixth consecutive contest that the Greyhounds had scored in the first inning and the 19th time in 33 games that the Hounds had at least a run in the first frame. Moravian is now 15-4 in those games.
Scranton responded in the bottom half of the first frame with four runs to take a 4-2 lead, and the Royals tacked on two more runs in the fourth to build a 6-2 advantage.
The Hounds scored a run in the top of the sixth to cut the deficit to 6-3. Senior center fielder Joseph Connell connected on a one-out double down the left field line, and Connell crossed the plate on an RBI double also down the left field line by senior catcher Matthew Gutkes.
The Royals scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth after the protest was announced, and Scranton added another tally in the eighth to finish the scoring.
Connell, Gutkes and Gaetaniello were all 2-for-4 for the Greyhounds while Hanson was 2-for-5 and junior third baseman Ryan Luke went 2-for-3. Connell became the third player in school history to reach 500 at-bats, and he also became the sixth player to score 100 runs in a career.
In the top of the fourth inning, senior second baseman Daniel Seitzinger hit an infield single to second base for his 100th career hit, becoming the 26th player in school history and fourth member of the current roster to hit the milestone.
Senior Thomas Mariano took the loss to fall to 3-3 on the season after allowing six runs on nine hits and a walk to go with one strikeout in four innings of action. Senior Ben Hammel tossed two innings with two runs on five hits to go with a strikeout while senior Jason Jamula pitched an inning with a walk and a strikeout. Junior Chris Lansberry tossed the final inning with a run allowed on two hits while striking out one batter.
Moravian is slated to return to action on Tuesday, April 22 in a non-conference game at Neumann University beginning at 4:00 p.m.