La Plume, PA (5-11-11) - Esteban Meletiche and Andrew Siano drove in two runs each as Keystone College made their early lead hold up as the Giants downed Neumann University 5-3 in the opening round of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) baseball playoffs.
The Giants, who now move into the winner's bracket of the conference tournament, and will play Immaculata University at 11am on Friday at Bear Stadium in Boyertown, PA. Neumann will play Gwynedd-Mercy in an elimination game at 3pm on Friday. The Mighty Macs moved into the winner's bracket with a 12-11 victory over the Griffins in 10 innings.
With the victory the Giants hit the 30-win mark, moving to 30-10, while Neumann falls to 28-11.
Meletiche, who was named as the CSAC Player of the Year earlier in the day, went 3-5 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Siano doubled in two.
Gabe Torres, Lance Ratchford and Brian Del Rosso all picked up two hits each in the winning effort.
Brad Higgins worked six innings, allowing all three runs on five hits to pick up the victory. Higgins also struck out five. Derek Alex worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn the save, as four relievers combined to shut down the Knights over the last three frames.
The Giants, who never trailed, put a run up in the first on a Roberto Santana single that brought Meletiche around to score.
Keystone would extend the lead to 4-0 with a three run second inning. Meletiche drove home the first run with a single to left that scored Ratchford. Siano followed by doubling down the left field line to plate two more, as Del Rosso and Meletiche came around to score.
The Knight cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third when Mathieu Vallieres connected on a two run homer to right.
Keystone got one back in the fourth on an RBI ground-out by Meletiche that scored Ratchford. The teams ended their scoring in the sixth when Derrek Etsell homered to right for the Knights.
With a win in Friday morning's game, the Giants would move into the championship game which is slated for Saturday at 1pm in Boyertown.
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