The University of Mary Washington baseball team used the middle innings to come away with a victory over RPI on Sunday afternoon, 10-3, in Fredericksburg, Va.
Collin Clarkson led the way on offense with four hits and two RBIs for the Eagles in the contest.
UMW got the offense going early when
Ryan Henson doubled home
Eric Powell in the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead before RPI would tie it in the third. In the bottom half of the inning,
Connor Hassan singled home Clarkson to give the Eagles a 2-1 advantage.
But in the fourth, the Eagles fell behind by a run after a two-run inning, but the Eagles put the Engineers away for good -- starting in the fifth inning. After reaching on a fielding error and advancing to second on a passed ball,
William Tuttle scored after an infield single and errant throw by the RPI first baseman to tie the game at three apiece. And after a sac bunt that moved Martin to third,
Sean Smith drove in Martin with a sac fly to give UMW the lead for good.
The Eagles ran into some trouble in the top of the sixth, though, when
Gavin Riley yielded a single and a double that put runners on second and third with no outs in a one-run game, 4-3. But in relief came
Noah Ezzie, who bounced a pitch to the first batter he faced that deflected off of Martin's shin guard, back into Ezzie's glove. The runner on third danced a little too far off the base and was picked off by Ezzie, who threw the ball to third in time to tag the tying run.
Following a walk to the hitter, Ezzie induced an inning-ending double play that stranded the tying and go-ahead runs. Riley worked five-plus innings as he struck out three hitters, yielding three runs (one earned) -- earning his first victory of the season. Ezzie recorded his first career save after recording the final 12 outs and striking out five in a scoreless outing.
The Eagles added to the lead in the sixth with a Tuttle RBI single, 5-3, before two runs scored on an RBI single from Clarkson that drew a bad throw from the RPI shortstop that allowed a second run to score on the play. With a 7-3 lead,
Cole Powers doubled home Henson in the seventh. In the eighth, Clarkson recorded his second RBI single of the day to push the lead to 9-3, and
Benjamin Rossi added the final run on an RBI single that went through the middle of the infield.
The Eagles are back in action on Wednesday at #10 Johns Hopkins. First pitch is set for 2:30 p.m.
