HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College baseball team dropped a 7-5 decision to the Eastern University Eagles at Kannerstein Field on Tuesday afternoon.
The first five batters of the game for Eastern reached base, giving the visitors an early advantage. Joey Grato's RBI single to left and a bases loaded walk gave the Eagles an early two run cushion.
The Freedom Conference foe added two more runs in the third inning. With one out and the bases loaded, Tommy Strazza singled to right to plate home a run. The Fords tried to turn a double play on the next batter, Angelo Kelly, but he beat the throw to first, tallying the fourth run of the contest for the Eagles.
Haverford got one back in the bottom half of the fourth frame on two-out infield single by junior Nick Ott. In the next inning, junior George Hatamiya's RBI hit didn't leave the infield, but it was enough to score freshman Spencer Sohmer. Senior Mike Tentilucci scored two batters later on a balk to cut the Fords' deficit to one.
Sophomore Jared Deveau tied the game in the sixth inning on a RBI knock up the middle. The Fords' first baseman advanced to third a batter later after Sohmer ripped a base hit to center field. The next hitter, Tentilucci, laid down a great sacrifice bunt that forced the pitcher to go to first, scoring Deveau and giving the home team its first lead of the afternoon.
With one out in the top of the seventh frame, the Eagles loaded the bases on a fielding error. Senior Max Gerard struck out Strazza for the second out, but Kelly came up with a two-run single to center to give Eastern the lead again. Ryan McMenamin added an insurance run a batter later on a RBI single up the middle.
The Fords brought the potential winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with two out, but a fly out secured the victory for the Eagles.
Sophomore Ben Verducci continued his stellar play of late with two hits and a run scored. Verducci has a five-game hitting streak, batting .591 (13-for-22) during that span. Ott and freshman Matt Goss also had two hits in the game. Junior Grant Finn shut out the Eagles over four innings of relief. The trio of sophomore Anthony Rizzo, Finn and Gerard struck out nine Eastern hitters in the loss.
Head coach Dave Beccaria's team dropped to 4-6 on the season while Eastern improved to 3-8 overall. The Fords' busy week continues tomorrow with a non-conference tilt at Rowan beginning at 3:30 p.m.