ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - While Casey Fox handled the shut-down pitching duties, his Haverford College teammates supplied the run support in a 15-1 non-conference baseball victory over host Eastern University under falling snow and chilly conditions Tuesday afternoon.
The Fords (7-6) collected 13 hits as Fox and reliever Clay Bloszies limited the Eagles (2-11) to one unearned run off five hits.
Fox pounded the strike zone in his 4 and 2/3 innings of work, surrendering just the one unearned run while fanning nine, including eight Eastern batters with runners in scoring position.
In contrast, Haverford was 8-for-21 with runners in scoring position compared to the home team's 0-for-13 mark. The Fords pushed 10 runs across the plate with two outs and were 11-for-25 with runners on base.
The deciding inning was the sixth when the Fords sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight runs.
Ahead 4-1 entering the top of the frame Haverford began its roll with a Yannick Villanueva walk to start the sixth. Though Villanueva was thrown out at the plate later in the inning for the first out, he came up again with the bases loaded and rapped out a three-RBI double to right field, scoring Justin Coulter, Jared Deveau and Thomas Vollaro.
In between Villanueava's at bats the Fords picked up a pair of singles, a run and an RBI from Nick Miranda; two singles and a run from William Bannard; two runs from George Hatamiya who walked and later in the inning reached safely on an error by the second baseman; and two runs and a pair of RBIs from Vollaro.
Miranda sparked the offense right off the bat as he led the game off reaching via a hit batsman, moved to second on a wild pitch then later came in to score the game's first run on an RBI-groundout from Ben Verducci. Hatamiya singled following Verducci's at bat and, after stealing second, scored the second run when Sam Kane's fly ball to center was misplayed by the Eastern center fielder.
Eastern notched its only run of the game, unearned, in the bottom of the frame and then two innings later Haverford added two more runs to push its advantage to 4-1, setting up the wild sixth when it put the game out of reach.
Bannard, Villanueva, Miranda, Hatamiya and Vollaro each had multi-hit games for the Fords with Villanueva collected four RBIs and five others collected two apiece.
Fox (1-0) picked up his first win of the season with the strong outing. Bloszies, though getting only 1 and 1/3 innings of work, was also commanding surrendering just one hit with one strikeout against no walks.
Tuesday's weather could force changes in the Fords' next outing as Haverford is scheduled to host 10th-ranked Rowan University on Wednesday afternoon at Kannerstein Field.