By Nick Pipitone
Freshman right fielder David Cole started the scoring for the Pride Sunday afternoon and by the time junior shortstop Josh Stern crossed the plate in the bottom of the 10th he had ended it.
With the strength of Cole’s one-out double over the head of Towson University’s centerfielder, the Pride went on to win, 7-6, in 10 innings in the rubber-match of a three-game weekend set with the Towson Tigers.
“We needed to win two out of three games this weekend,” head coach Chris Dotolo said. “It’s a huge win.”
With the late-inning heroics, the Pride improved to 12-17 overall and is 3-6 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Towson dropped to 16-13 and 4-5 in the CAA.
After winning another 10-inning affair in the series opener on Friday, the Pride dropped Saturday’s game, 11-6, only adding to the pressure Sunday. Fortunately, Will DeVito, who is quickly emerging as the staff’s ace, was on the mound.
The sophomore transfer from Dowling, whose 4.25 ERA leads the team, pitched six strong innings, allowing nine hits but only two earned runs. Towson was able to get to him early though when sophomore third basemen Hans Falkenhan homered to right field to open the scoring.
The Pride avoided a potential disaster the very next at-bat when Towson centerfielder Adam Heffron’s smacked the ball foul down the right field line. After walking Heffron, DeVito induced a fly ball against pitcher/designated hitter Casper Wells to get out of the inning.
It didn’t take long for the Pride to respond to the heavy-hitting Tigers. In the bottom of the inning, the Pride put up three runs, jump-started by Cole’s line-drive single to center to start the inning. Senior captain Josh Stewart advanced Cole with a textbook drag bunt towards the second basemen followed by shortstop Ricky Caputo’s two-RBI liner into the gap in left-center.
Although Towson managed to score in the top of the fourth, the Pride held onto the lead and added three runs in the seventh and eighth innings to cruise into the top of the ninth with a comfortable 6-2 lead.
DeVito was relieved by freshman Mike Xydias after his pitch count ran over 110 pitches after the sixth inning. Xydias pitched formidably, allowing no runs and three hits over two innings of work. However, with a four-run lead and a chance to close out not only the game but the series, sophomore closer Jeff Denlea couldn’t finish the Tigers off.
After walking the first two batters, Denlea allowed a three-run homer to Wells, a towering shot deep into left-center. The right fielder Mark Chiccini singled next and then advanced to third on a line drive into the gap by strong-armed first baseman Jason Maxey. All the Tigers needed to get Chiccini home and tie the game at 6 was a sacrifice fly to center by Fields.
The Pride wasn’t able to generate any offense in the bottom of the ninth, ending the inning with consecutive strikeouts by sophomore George Athanasopoulos and junior Mike Walsh.
In the 10th Dotolo inserted freshman lefthander Anthony Sarno to face the top of the Tigers order. Towson went flat hitless in the top of the inning.
Similar to Friday afternoon, the Pride entered the bottom of the tenth with a chance to put the Tigers away. Stern led off the inning and managed to get on base courtesy of an error by Towson shortstop Shane Justis, who miffed the routine ground ball and launched the throw over the first basemen’s head, advancing Stern to second.
After an Oliveri sacrifice bunt got Stern to third, Towson head coach Mike Gottelieb decided to intentionally walk the next two batters, Eric Balson and Andy Campana, to load the bases and create a force out and possible double play situation.
With one out, Cole won the game by slamming a ball into center over the centerfielder’s head and the dugout cleared, assuring the Pride’s second straight series win over Towson and that Cole would finish what he started.