Devils Split a Doubleheader with Eagles

The University of the Sciences men's baseball team rallied for five runs in the eighth inning of Monday's Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opening game with Post University to defeat the Eagles 7-3.  Post went on to win the nightcap 5-0 to give the Devils a split of their two games at Richie Ashburn Field in Philadelphia.

The split leaves the Devils with a 12-18 overall record and a 10-8 conference mark.  Post is now 22-13 overall and 12-6 in CACC games.  Sciences is currently sitting in fourth place in the conference standings with the top six teams qualifying for the CACC championship tournament.  Their ten conference wins is a school record.  The Devils 12 wins is also the most in the program since the team won 15 games in 1987 (15-11-1).

The five-run rally was only the second come-from-behind win for the Devils this season when trailing after seven innings, the first coming just nine days ago when the Devils rallied with four eighth inning runs at Nyack and went on to win in 11 innings 9-6.

Post had gotten the go ahead run in the top half of the seventh inning when Travis Locascio took the second pitch from Devils reliever Adam Kissinger and parked it over the right field wall for a solo home run to lead off the inning.  Kissinger then retired the next six batters to keep the score at 3-2 as the Devils headed into their next-to-last at-bat of the game.  A walk and a hit batter turned into runners at the corners with two out with the top of the order coming up.  Nick Szalejko beat out an infield single to bring home Lou Tomasetti with the tying run and Jay Andrews followed with a single to score Will Rebman with the go-ahead run.  Pete LaRocco followed with a single, scoring Szalejko and Mark Perry walked to load the bases.  Kyle Davis then delivered a two-run double down the left field line to complete the rally and give the Devils a 7-3 lead.

Kissinger gave up a single to Brendan Barry open the ninth inning but cleared the bases when Aaron Lerma hit into fielders choice which turned into a double play via an interference call under the forced slide rule.   Losascio then lined out to Perry at first to end the game.  Kissinger improved to 1-2 with the win, pitching three innings of relief, giving up two hits and striking out two.  Starter Dan McMahon went six innings, giving up two runs and six hits while striking out seven.  McMahon also walked five batters.

In the nightcap, the Devils mustered up only eight hits (all singles) against Post starter Dan Steers but could not produce a sustainable rally as the Eagles salvaged a split with a 5-0 win. Luke Peyton took the loss for the Devils, falling to 4-3 on the season.  Peyton gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits while striking out seven in seven innings of work.  LaRocco pitched the final two innings giving up an unearned run and two hits with two strikeouts.

Peyton and Steers pitched scoreless baseball through the first five innings before Peyton gave up an RBI single to Locascio in the sixth and three more runs on two hits in the seventh as the Devils found themselves in a 4-0 hole.  Sciences had their best opportunity in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with nobody out but failed to score as the inning ended with Szalejko lining out to the second baseman and Rebman getting doubled up off first.

Steers pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth innings and the eagles added a run in the ninth to make the final margin 5-0.

The Devils return to action with a non-conference game against Chestnut Hill on Wednesday at Ashburn Field starting at 4:00 p.m.