Homers propel Lyco baseball past first-place Wilkes
Home runs from junior Josh Bottger and sophomore Sean Perkins helped lift the Lycoming College baseball team to a 5-2 win over Wilkes University in Landmark Conference action at Brandon Park on Wednesday.
Junior Jake Wilber (4-2) earned the win with a quality start, allowing two runs in six innings. He gave up seven hits and a walk while striking out four. Junior Joel Inman earned the hold with two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out three. Sophomore Grayson Rinker – a Montoursville grad – pitched the ninth for a school-record fifth save, allowing a hit and a hit batter while striking out two.
Senior Danny DeLucas was the lone Warrior with two hits, as Lycoming (11-9 overall, 3-2 Landmark) had seven hits in the game.
Down 2-0 in the second, Bottger cut the lead in half with a homer to left. A groundball double play got the Warriors out of a bases-loaded jam in the third before they manufactured a run to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Junior Nick Reeder – a Montoursville grad – walked, stole second and scored on a two-out single up the middle from sophomore Eric MacCluen.
Lycoming left a Wilkes (11-7 overall, 5-2 Landmark) runner stranded at third in the fourth and in the sixth took the lead when junior Brody Lindsey doubled over the third-base bag before Perkins delivered a two-run, two-out shot to left center. Lycoming got one more run across in the eighth, as DeLucas singled to lead off, moved up on a sac bunt and scored on a two-out single from junior A.J. Llorente – also a Montoursville grad.
The Colonels’ offense only had two runners reach between the fifth and eighth, one on an error and one with an infield single. In the ninth a single and a hit batter brought the tying run to the plate, but Rinker struck out the last batter to end the threat.
Wilkes was led by two hits from Zack Luksic, Jacob Cambria and Andres Cruz. Ethan Grodack (0-1) pitched two innings, allowing two hits and two runs. He struck out three.
The Warriors are back in action on Saturday when they host Drew University in a Landmark Conference doubleheader. First pitch at Brandon Park is at noon.