BETHANY, WV – The Franciscan University Baron's
baseball team was in action against the Bison of Bethany College
Wednesday afternoon. Franciscan lost both games, 11-3 and 19-16.
The losses drop the Baron's record 6-18 on the season.
In the first game, the bright spots for Franciscan were Jacob Machado and Rocco Auteri, both going 3-4 on the day. Tom Costello
went 1-3 with an RBI. Daniel Brink started for the Barons, pitching
three innings and giving up eight hits and six earned runs. Brink
also had two strikeouts. Sam Quillen came in for relief, pitching
three innings and giving up four earned runs off of the seven hits
while striking out one batter.
Franciscan took an early 2-1 lead after the first inning. But
the lead was short lived when Bethany unloaded for five runs in the
third inning. The Bison would score in every inning for the rest of
the game. Franciscan's defense showed improvement, however,
with only one error on the game.
In the second game, the Barons had their second highest scoring
game of the season. Auteri continued his hot hitting, going 3-4
with four RBIs and scoring three runs. Shortstop Anthony Pontarelli
went 2-4 with four RBIs, while Brink at the designated hitter spot
went 3-4 with two RBIs. Matt Liedel, Kevin Marrow and Costello all
had RBIs as well.
The starting pitcher for the Barons was Matt Talbot, who went
four innings and gave up six earned runs off of nine hits. John
Purro came in for relief and allowed all three batters he faced to
score. Machado came to the mound for the final two innings, giving
up no earned runs off of eight hits. The Barons defense struggled
as they committed five errors on the day.
Franciscan came out firing this second game, taking a 13-5 lead
going into the fourth inning. But what looked to be a promising
offensive day went downhill in the fifth as the Barons gave up
fourteen runs and twelve hits. Franciscan would get six more runs,
but it wasn't enough as the Barons took the tough loss
19-16.
The Barons get back to the grind of conference play with a
double-header against the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford on
Saturday at Vaccaro Field. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
