RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The ESU baseball team dropped a close contest on the road Friday afternoon, falling to Felician 5-4, moving the Warriors to 11-6 on the season.
PITCHING NOTABLES
- Peyton Brannock got the start, and after a shaky first inning, he settled in to deliver two scoreless innings after that. He finished with a strikeout across 3.0 IP.
- The trio of Ryan Dewees, Ethan Woods, and Evan Hughes navigated the next five innings. They combined for no earned runs and two strikeouts, only allowing four hits from the bottom of the fourth to the bottom of the eighth.
BATTING NOTABLES
- Troy Davis continued his strong start to the season, delivering two RBI for ESU. Going 1-5, he finished with a stolen base as well.
- The other Warrior to tally an RBI was Zander Condeelis. The young third baseman also went 1-5, but plated another run for ESU off a fielding error.
- Parker Frey finished 0-1 on the day, but he made it on base four times by base on balls. He was able to come around to score one of those times.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- ESU drew three walks in its first four plate appearances, with Braydon Hubbard and Cole Serfass both getting hit as Frey worked a walk. With one out, the Warriors were unable to get on the board, as Ryan Manning hit a grounder back to the pitcher for the force out at home, and Davis went down swinging.
- The Golden Falcons loaded the bases in their first three at-bats of the game, bringing Luis De La Cruz to the plate. He hit a fielder's choice back to Brannock, who was able to go home for the game's first out, but he wasn't out of trouble yet. All three runners moved up on a wild pitch for the game's first run, then Bryce Curry hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Rocko Brzezniak and make it 2-0.
- The Warriors scored their first run of the day in the fourth inning thanks to Connor Reilly's base running. Reilly led the inning with a walk, advancing to second and then stealing third as Condeelis came up to the plate. Condeelis hit a bouncing ground ball between the third baseman and shortstop, as the shortstop was unable to corral the ball, allowing Reilly to safely make it across home plate.
- However, Felician got the run right back in the bottom half of the inning. Andrew DeAngelis hit a leadoff single to right, advancing to third in the next two at-bats off a sacrifice bunt and fly. DeAngelis scored in the fourth at-bat of the inning after an error at shortstop, making it 3-1
- The Warriors' offense carried its momentum from the fourth, surging ahead in the fifth. Serfass started the inning with an infield single, beating out the throw from the shortstop. After Frey and Manning walked, Davis came up in the lineup, hitting a single to right to score the two lead runners. With Reilly now on after a walk to load the bases again, Condeelis grounded out to the second baseman, allowing all three runners to advance safely and make the score 4-3 in favor of ESU.
- After Woods and Hughes came in for three innings, ESU turned to Jake Albert in the bottom of the ninth. Felician's first two batters got on base with walks to begin the inning, but the Warriors got their first out after a fielder's choice put runners on the corners. Haiden Walters hit a grounder to shortstop that scored Thomas Iaquinto and moved the game-winning run to second base. Capping off a 10-pitch at-bat, Jose Medrano drew a walk, with the last pitch getting past Reilly and allowing Petrick to get to third base. Brzezniak came up to bat, hitting a walk-off single to give the Golden Hawks the 5-4 win.
UP NEXT
The Warriors return home to Creekview Park to take on Jefferson next week for their last game before opening up their conference schedule. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18
