Fort Pierce, FL – Trailing 4-2 and down to their final five outs, Keystone College's baseball team scored six unanswered runs to defeat the University of Northwestern (MN) 8-4 in the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader. The Giants, now 3-8 on the season, were able to salvage a split of the twin bill after dropping the opener, 5-2.
In Wednesday's first game, Northwestern (1-5) took a 3-0 lead after the first inning as the Eagles got an RBI groundout from Tyler Osborn before receiving RBI hits from Ryan Sutterer and Aaron Rau. Keystone got a run back in the top of the second inning though when
Lymbel Guerrero (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical) scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast), but an RBI double by Osborn in the home half of the frame pushed Northwestern's lead back to three runs.
In the top of the fourth inning, Reyes again drove in Guerrero, this time with a single to center, to cut the Giants' deficit to 4-2, but the Eagles got an RBI base hit from Michael Studer in the fifth inning to get the run back. Keystone brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh inning, but was unable to push any more runs across.
Andy Peterson pitched a complete game to pick up the win for Northwestern, allowing two runs on eight hits and seven walks while striking out nine batters. Four Eagles recorded two hits apiece as Northwestern held an 11-8 advantage in hits for the game.
Rob Blanc (Sandy Hook, CT/Trumbull) (0-2) suffered the loss despite working all six innings on the mound for the Giants and striking out nine batters on the day while issuing just one free pass. Guerrero and
Tyler Gurman (Bronx, NY/Lehman) had two hits apiece to lead Keystone, with Reyes driving in both runs in the loss.
In the nightcap, the Giants took a 1-0 lead after one inning of play when
Dylan Corl (Morrisdale, PA/West Branch ) scored on a
Dan Denton (Newtown, PA/Council Rock North) base hit to left field before doubling their lead in the bottom of the second when
Rick McLaughlin (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) scored from second on a Reyes single.
The Eagles would level the game in the visitor's fourth when Andy Peterson hit a two-run single before taking a 4-2 lead in the fifth inning as Braxton Lindow hit an RBI single and later scored on a passed ball. Keystone answered with a three-run bottom half of the inning though to go back in front, 5-4. Corl scored on a
Domenick Montanaro (Egg Harbor Township, NJ/Egg Harbor Township) double before Denton drove in Montanaro for the tying run with a double of his own. Denton then scored the go-ahead run when
Gaston Rojas (Carmel, NY/Carmel) tripled.
Corl started a three-run sixth inning for Keystone with a triple an RBI triple of his own that plated Reyes. Corl would come around to score on an Gurman sacrifice fly before Denton drove in the final run of the game with a single that brought home Montanaro.
Robert Minaya (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen) started on the mound for Keystone and went five innings in which he allowed four runs on six hits.
James Dunning (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) (1-0) pitched a scoreless sixth inning that included one strikeout while picking up the win before
Steve Aniska (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) recorded the final three outs in the seventh to close out the victory for the Giants on the mound.
Denton's 3-4, three RBI performance paced Keystone's offense while Corl went 2-3 with a walk and three runs scored. The Giants out-hit the Eagles 9-6 in game two.
Troy Nelson was charged with the loss after allowing five runs on seven hits in five innings for Northwestern. Matt Doss allowed a pair of runs in 0.1 innings while Drew Tennyson surrendered one run in 0.2 innings on the hill.
Lindow and Osborn collected two hits apiece and Peterson's pair of RBIs paced the Eagles' offense in the nightcap loss.
Keystone will wrap up their spring break trip on Thursday afternoon when they take on Penn State Behrend, the defending Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference champions, at 12:00 p.m. in Fort Pierce.
