BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College baseball team took game one of a best-of-three series against The Catholic University of America in the opening game of Landmark Conference Championship series Friday afternoon at Gillespie Field.
"We battled today, starting early with some timely hits, and we also took advantage of a few errors they made to get out to an early lead, which I thought was important for us," commented Head Coach Paul Engelhardt. "We still have work to do but we're excited to come out tomorrow just one win away from another conference championship."
Senior right fielder Matt Hanson went 3-for-4 at the plate while scoring two runs to move into first in school history in career runs scored with 139 while junior first basemen Charles Savite was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
The Greyhounds jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead over the Cardinals in the first inning. Hanson would reach first on a fielding error and take off on a wild pitch. Savite doubled to right center to score the first run of the game. Senior left fielder Justin Pilchman singled to left field to move Savite around the bases for the 2-0 advantage heading into the second inning.
In the third inning, senior designated hitter Ryan Luke doubled to left center with one out. Hanson took it to left field for a single and to advance the runner into scoring position. Savite would hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored both runners on a pair of throwing errors for by the Cardinals as Hanson crossed the plate with his record 139th run to extend the lead to 4-0.
The Cardinals would score a run in the top of the fourth but the Blue and Grey answered with a run of their own. Junior third basemen Alex Bull would start the inning with a double to right field. He would advance to third on a failed pickoff attempt, and cross home plate on a single up the middle by junior catcher Mike Roethke.
The bottom of the fifth frame started with Luke being hit by a pitch and he would advance to second on a failed pickoff attempt. Hanson singled to left field advancing the runner to third, both runners would advance on a wild pitch to give the Hounds a 6-1 lead.
While Catholic rallied for three more runs, Moravian held on to the win by using three pitchers. Freshman Dan Morrin is now 6-1 this season after pitching 6.1 innings with four strikeouts. Junior Ian Carbone faced seven batters and junior Brett Wagner earned his second save of the year striking out two batters in 1.2 innings of action.
The Cardinals and Greyhounds return to Gillespie field on Saturday to finish the best-of-three series for the Landmark Conference title with the first pitch slated for 11:00 a.m. The winner of the series will earn the conference's automatic berth to the 2015 NCAA Division III Tournament that begins on May 13.
