West Lawn, PA (May 12, 2017) - Senior
Tommy DePaul had three hits, scored twice, had two RBIs, and stole three bases leading the DeSales University baseball team past Manhattanville College, 8-4, in the opening game of the MAC Freedom Baseball Tournament at Owls Field on Friday evening.
The top seeded Bulldogs (26-15) advance into the winner's bracket and will play the winner of the second game on Friday evening on Saturday at 3:00 pm.
Manhattanville (18-23) scored the first run of the game taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning before DSU plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning claiming a 3-1 lead. DePaul had the big blow in the inning, a two-run triple to right centerfield and he score two batters later on a double steal.
The Valiants got one back in the sixth pulling within a run but DSU answered with two more tallies in the sixth on two-out RBI singles from seniors
Mike Kacergis and
Pat Rhoads.
Manhattanville refused to go away pushing two more runs across in the top of the seventh before senior
Tyler Cooperman was able to strand two runners in scoring position with an inning ending strikeout.
DeSales once again answered MC's runs with three of its own in the bottom of the seventh and sophomore
Preston Amato and Kacergis each had RBI hits and DePaul stole home for the second time on a double steal making it 8-4 and freshman
Ryan Passaro did the rest retiring all six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings.
Among DePaul's three hits were his 199th career base knock, leaving him one shy of becoming the fourth player to record 200 hits in a career. Amato and Kacergis also had three hits each and Rhoads came off the bench to collect two hits. Junior
Hunter Hart scored twice in his first game from injury.
Junior
Konner Schneider earned the win in relief pitching two innings allowing one run. Cooperman and Passaro combined to allow just one hit and strike out three over the final three innings.
