Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Holy Cross
Baseball Falls Twice to Holy Cross in PL Semifinal Series
5/11/2013 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 2013
WORCESTER, Mass. - The Bucknell baseball team won the Patriot League title as the No. 4 seed in 2008 and 2010 and was hoping to repeat that feat in 2013, but the Bison dropped a pair of games to top-seeded Holy Cross Saturday at Fitton Field and were eliminated from the best-of-three Patriot League Semifinal Series. Bucknell, which wrapped up its 2013 season with a 16-33 record, lost game one by a 9-6 score and then fell in game two by a 3-0 count.
Holy Cross (28-23) advanced on to next weekend's Patriot League Championship series and will host third-seeded Army, which swept its best-of-three series from second-seeded Navy on Saturday.
The doubleheader spanned more than seven hours as game two featured a rain delay of approximately 45 minutes after the fifth inning. Holy Cross reliever John Colella, the Patriot League Pitcher of the Year, earned two saves on the day, pitching 1.2 innings in both games and striking out six hitters while allowing just one hit.
Game one was back-and-forth early as the Bison took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a one-out single by Rob Krentzman followed by an RBI double by Worcester native Anthony Gingerelli. The Crusaders answered back with two runs in the bottom of the third, capitalizing on a leadoff walk by Connor Perry and an error that led to both runs being unearned.
Bucknell went back on top with two runs in the top of the fourth. Joe Ogren connected on his second home run of the season and a two-out Robb Scott double brought home Gingerelli, who had singled earlier in the frame.
Bryson Hough (3-6) made his first relief appearance of the season in place of Bison starter Dan Goldstein in the fourth inning and Holy Cross touched him for six runs as 10 Crusaders stepped to the plate in the stanza. Holy Cross never trailed again. The first five hitters in the inning reached base and Patrick Puentes and Jordan Enos both drove in two runs with two-out singles to stake the Crusaders to a five-run cushion.
Xavier Hammond got the last out of the fourth inning and pitched the final 4.1 innings for the Bison. He allowed just three hits and struck out two. Holy Cross did not score again until the eighth inning when it capitalized on another leadoff walk that came around to cross the plate.
Bucknell did cut into the Crusaders' 8-3 lead on a three-run double by Krentzman in the sixth. The Bison loaded the bases thanks to walks to Travis Clark and Ogren, as well as a fielding error. However, Bucknell had no more than one runner on base in any of the final three innings.
Holy Cross starter Tom Marra (4-4) earned the win by logging 5.0 innings and allowing six hits and six runs. Relievers Andrew Boyce (2.1 IP) and Colella (1.2 IP) yielded just three hits and struck out five in the later innings. All three hurlers are seniors.
The middle third of the Bison lineup was the strong portion in game one. Ogren (4th), Krentzman (5th) and Gingerelli (6th) were a combined 6-for-11 with five RBIs and four runs scored. Krentzman was 3-for-4, Gingerelli was 2-for-4 and Ogren was 1-for-3.
Puentes paced the Holy Cross offense in game one with a 3-for-4 performance with four RBIs. Brandon Cipolla also had three hits. Both Bucknell and Holy Cross totaled nine hits in the contest.
The Crusaders scored single runs in the first, second and third innings in game two and starter Donny Murray (7-3) allowed just three hits in 7.1 innings before giving way to Colella.
Back-to-back one-out walks in the bottom of the eighth by Ogren and Krentzman brought the tying run to the plate for the Bison. However, Colella struck out Gingerelli and got Scott to pop out with two runners in scoring position.
Dan Weigel (2-8) started on the mound for Bucknell and allowed just six hits and three runs in 7.0 innings. He gave way to Patriot League Rookie of the Year Andrew Andreychik after allowing the first two hitters in the eighth inning to reach, snapping a streak of 10 in a row retired. Andreychik retired six of the seven hitters he faced to finish his freshman campaign with a 3.73 ERA.
Enos was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI singles for Holy Cross, while Alex Maldonado also posted an RBI single for the Crusaders.
Bucknell, which was playing in the Patriot League Tournament for the fifth time in the last six years, had participated in four consecutive best-of-three Patriot League Tournament series went the full three games. The last time the Bison played just two games in a series was in 2008 when they swept host Navy for the Patriot League title.
