CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – The Allegheny baseball team kicked off North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) play with a pair of decisive victories at Wabash, taking game one 8-3 before earning a run-rule win in game two by an 11-0 count.
With the sweep, the Gators improve to 13-4 on the year and 2-0 in league play after defeating the Little Giants, who had been earning votes in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll.
The Gators earned the victory in game one thanks to a seven-run outburst combined between the fourth and fifth innings that broke open a 1-1 game. In the fourth, a one-out error put two men on before
Brady Nolin (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) walked to load the bases.
Chase Chodkowski (Buffalo, N.Y./West Seneca West) scored
Brett Heckert (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) with a sacrifice fly, before
Brayden Cartwright (New Castle, Pa./New Castle) stepped to the plate and belted his first career home run, a three-run shot to left field, to give Allegheny the 5-1 advantage.
The fifth saw Heckert intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, before
Ben Kosbie (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy) drove in
Anthony Maslo (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) with a sac fly of his own. With two men on, Nolin tripled to straight away center and brought home Heckert and
Jacob Budnar (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Cleveland Heights).
Allegheny opened the game with a run in the top of the first as Heckert's sacrifice fly brought in Maslo.
Tyson Bryant-Dawson (Oakland, Calif./Manvel (Texas)) and Cartwright both had multi-hit showings, with Cartwright driving in three runs and Nolin adding a pair of RBIs.
Conor Deasy (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic) earned the win, his fifth straight in the last five decisions to move to 5-1 on the year. He scattered eight hits and two earned runs, while striking out eight and walking just one. In relief,
Garrett Senchur (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) tossed 1.2 innings of one-hit relief with one strikeout.
Cam Karnik (Lorain, Ohio/Amherst Steele) allowed one run, one walk and one hit in closing out the game in the ninth inning.
The Gators started game two in a similar manner to the mid-innings of the opener, putting up four runs in the top of the first. Heckert plated Budnar with a sacrifice fly, before
Jake Stotsky (Pittsburgh, Pa./Vincentian Academy) brought in Bryant-Dawson and Kosbie with a bases-loaded, two-run single. The final run of the inning came when Nolin came across the plate while Stotsky was caught in a rundown between first and second.
Another run was added in the first on a sac fly from Dawson-Bryant to make it 5-0. The lead swelled to 10-0 in the fourth with five runs, four of which were unearned. The final run of the game was plated in the top of fifth on an RBI double by
Seth Reisman (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) that brought home
Ryan Dougherty (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny).
Budnar, Stotsky and Reisman all had multi-hit efforts in the night cap victory, which was concluded after seven innings due to the NCAC's run-rule.
Daniel Morgano (Allison Park, Pa./Vincentian Academy) improved to 4-2 on the year with his second shutout. The junior allowed just three hits and struck out two in 7.0 innings.
On the way back from Indiana, the Gators will stop in Ada, Ohio for a single, nine-inning nonconference game against Ohio Northern at noon on Sunday, April 3.
