April 9, 2009
Garnet Halt Shoremen, 9-8
Washington's Rally Comes Up Short

CHESTERTOWN, MD - Visting Swarthmore College jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and held off a comeback attempt by host Washington College to score a 9-8 victory on Thursday afternoon at Athey Baseball Park in Centennial Conference baseball action. The Garnet improve to 9-17 overall and 1-8 in conference play, while the Shoremen fall to 9-12 and 3-6 respectively.

Swarthmore led 6-4 going into the top of the eighth inning and scored three runs to take a 9-4 lead. With one out, Anthony Montalbano hit a sacrifice fly that plated Mike Waterhouse to put the Garnet up 7-4. Wiley Archibald made it 8-4 when he scored on a throwing error and Matt Lamb made it 9-4 when he scored off of a double by Spencer Ross.

Washington scored four runs in the ninth inning and had the tying run on base before falling short. Senior Greg Perret (Morris Plains, NJ/Bayley Ellard) scored on a sacrifice fly to cut the Swarthmore lead to 9-5. Junior Matt Boucher (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) scored courtesy of a throwing error to trim the deficit to 9-6. With two runners on base, senior Tony Tozzolo (Calvert County, MD/Northern) launched a ball to deep left-center that hit halfway up the fence to plate both freshman Ben Jardot (McLean, VA/Flint Hill School) and junior Brian Kramer (Fairfax, VA/W.T. Woodson) to reduce the Garnet lead to just 9-8. With Tozzolo on second as the tying run, senior Joe Coveney (Madison, NJ/Madison) represented the winning run, but Swarthmore pitcher Neil Mejia struck out Coveney to end the game.

The Garnet scored in each of the first three innings to grab a 6-0 lead. In the top of the first, Lamb drove in Waterhouse on a single to make it 1-0. Swarthmore added three more in the second on a Archibald three-run home run that went off the right field foul pole to put the visitors up 4-0. Swarthmore added two more runs in the third to lead 6-0.

Washington got on the board in the fourth inning with a home run by freshman Ben Keaton (Arlington, VA/Flint Hill School) to cut the Garnet lead to 6-1. The longball was Keaton's second of the season. The Shoremen added two runs in the bottom of the fifth on RBI hits by Boucher and Jardot to erode Swarthmore's lead to 6-3. The hosts had the bases loaded with one out, but a double play ball ended the threat. The Shoremen scored a run in the sixth on a two-bagger by freshman Ryan Normoyle (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape) that knocked in Coveney that trimmed the Garnet's lead to 6-4.

For the Garnet, Archibald was 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored, while Miles Santo was also 3-for-4 on the afternoon. Conor Casey went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored and Waterhouse scored a game-high three runs. On the hill, Kyle Crawford gets the win to improve to 2-4 on the season and Mejia earned his second save of the season. The win was Swarthmore's first road win in the series since a 16-6 win in 2004 in Chestertown, snapping a four-game skid.

Keaton led the Washington charge with a 2-for-4 day from the plate and three RBI. He was one of five Shoremen who totaled two hits on the afternoon, the other four being Normoyle, Perret, Jardot and Tozzolo. Tozzolo also drove in two runs on the afternoon, while Perret scored two times. Boucher had three hits to top all Shoremen. On the mound, junior pitcher Chris Keiper (Toms River, NJ/Monsignor Donovan) took the loss and falls to 1-2.

The Shoremen hit the road tomorrow for a Centennial Conference contest at McDaniel. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m.

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