April 18, 2008
Washington Comes Back To Down McDaniel, 13-11
Six-Run Seventh-Inning Propels Shoremen to Win

CHESTERTOWN, MD - Junior Tony Tozzolo (Calvert County, MD/Northern) ignited a six-run seventh inning with his first career home run as Washington College rallied from a 9-7 deficit to beat visiting McDaniel, 13-11, on Friday afternoon in Centennial Conference baseball action at Athey Field. The Shoremen, who avenge a 7-6 11-inning loss on Tuesday at McDaniel, improve to 7-16 overall and 3-11 in the Centennial, while the Green Terror fall to 9-17 and 6-8 respectively. Washington has now won seven of the past eight over McDaniel.

With the visitors entering the bottom of the seventh up 9-7, Tozzolo cranked a pitch from Chase Wolf over the left field wall to cut the McDaniel lead to 9-8. The next two Washington batters, sophomores Matt Boucher (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) and Brian Kramer (Fairfax, VA/W.T. Woodson) hit singles to put runners on first and second. Boucher and Kramer then executed a double steal to put runners on second and third. Junior Doug Lutz (Pitman, NJ/Pitman) drove in both runners on a single down the right field line to put Shoremen up 10-9. Lutz would score on a RBI single off the bat of junior Chris O'Donovan (Annapolis, MD/Annapolis) to make it 11-9 hosts. Junior Rob Rifkin (Somerset, NJ/Franklin) made it 13-9 and capped off the six-run inning with a two-run single to left field, plating junior Greg Perret (Morris Plains, NJ/Bayley Ellard) and O'Donovan.

Washington took a 13-9 edge into the top of the ninth when McDaniel made its final rally, scoring two runs before coming up short. Troy Tipton, who reached on an error, scored on a throwing error by Washington to cut it to 13-10. With two outs, the Green Terror would load the bases and cut the Shoremen lead to 13-11 on a bases loaded walk by Russell Coover that scored Jon Zimmerman. Washington senior pitcher Kirk Hines (Ellicott City, MD/Mount St. Joseph) struck out McDaniel's Justin Reitz on a full count pitch to chalk up his first save of the season.

McDaniel took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, highlighted by a two-run triple by Zach Croft. Croft would score on a sacrifice fly by Coover. Washington would score three runs of its own in the bottom of the first. With the Shoremen trailing 3-1, junior Ben Kaplan (Fairfax, VA/W.T. Woodson) drove in two runs on a single to centerfield to even the score at 3-3.

Washington scored two runs in the bottom of the second on a two-run single up the middle by Boucher to make it 5-3 Shoremen. McDaniel would answer in the top of the third with four runs to take a 7-5 lead. Tipton would give the Green Terror a 6-5 lead on a wild pitch and Zimmerman made it 7-5 on a single to left field that scored Andrew Worm.

The Shoremen cut the lead to 7-6 in the bottom of the fourth, scoring a run on a double play. In the top of the fifth, McDaniel made it 9-6 on a double by Harold Baines that scored two runs. Washington cut the Green Terror lead to 9-7 in the bottom of the sixth on a double by senior James Tidwell (Newark, DE/Charter School of Wilmington) that scored O'Donovan. The score would reamin this way until the game deciding bottom of the seventh.

For the Shoremen, Tidwell and Tozzolo were 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Boucher was 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Three Shoremen, Kaplan, Lutz and Rifkin each drove in two runs apiece. O'Donovan crossed the plate three times in the victory. On the mound, freshman Paul McMannis (Arbutus, NJ/Lansdowne) picked up the victory in relief and goes to 2-0. He tossed six innings and struck out six.

For the Green Terror, Baines was a perfect 4-for-4, reached base in all six of his plate appearances and drove in two runs. Zimmerman was 3-for-6 with three runs scored for the visitors. Coover and Croft each drove in two runs in the contest, while Tipton scored twice. Worm and Sergio Nieto both went 2-for-5 with a run scored. Pitcher Dustin Knox took the loss for McDaniel and falls to 0-1.

The Shoremen return to action tomorrow with a 12:30 p.m. Centennial Conference road doubleheader at Ursinus.

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