Less than one day after one comeback fell short, John Carroll baseball roared back to complete another. The Blue Streaks topped Allegheny College, 11-10, in extra innings on Saturday in Beckley, W. Va.
A wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth scored
Monroe Donnelly and put the exclamation point on a comeback from a 10-4 deficit.
Donnelly had a prolific day at the plate, going 4-for-5 with four RBI. The junior crushed two home runs on the afternoon, becoming the first Blue Streak to do so since
Tyler Gentile on Apr. 12, 2016.
Freshman
Joe Charpentier matched Donnelly's four RBI with a 2-for-3 effort.
Matthew Donnelly,
Patrick Keohane and
Dominic Mittiga each had three hits; Mittiga scored twice, stealing one base.
Ryan Bastien (1-0) was the winning pitcher following two innings of scoreless two-hit relief. Travis Neamon (0-1) gave up the winning run in the tenth.
Jake Servidio made his return to the mound for JCU, pitching three innings of two-hit baseball and allowing two runs. In relief,
Cameron Mayle pitched 2.2 innings and gave up five runs.
Allegheny scored first on a sacrifice fly in the first inning. John Carroll matched the run in the next frame, when
Monroe Donnelly homered to left field. The Gators scored in the second, and Donnelly drew the Blue and Gold even again with a line drive single to center. Two batters later, Mittiga doubled to left and scored Donnelly.
The teams fought back and forth, with JCU taking a 4-3 lead on Donnelly's second long ball. Allegheny scored, then extended the advantage to 10-4 by the seventh.
Monroe Donnelly's RBI double and a bases-clearing triple by Charpentier in the bottom half of the seventh cut the lead to two runs.
Facing a two-run deficit in the final frame, JCU quickly went to work.
Matthew Donnelly and Mittiga both smacked singles, and
James Molnar sent home Donnelly with a sacrifice fly. Charpentier plated Mittiga with a single on a 2-1 count to tie the game.
Aaron Zawadzki walked to load the bases, but the Gators escaped the inning to force extras.
Monroe Donnelly walked to start the inning. With one out, Mittiga singled to center, followed by an intentional walk of Molnar. Zawadski struck out swinging on a wild pitch, and reached first. Donnelly came home to score, and the Blue Streaks claimed their first win of 2017.
The Blue and Gold travel to Florida next weekend, where they will play eight games in Fort Myers, North Port, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda.
