Baseball Drops Pair at Holy Cross

Monday, April 3

Worcester, Mass.

1 p.m.

Bucknell University

13-13, 7-4

Holy Cross

8-20, 2-5

Bucknell

Holy Cross

Photo by: Mady Salvani

4/3/2023 7:07:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Bucknell baseball team's struggles against Holy Cross continued on Monday, as the Crusaders swept a doubleheader from the Bison by scores of 7-4 and 12-8. Holy Cross jumped out to big leads in both games, and Bucknell's comeback attempts fell short in the end.

After splitting a twin bill at Army on Sunday, the Bison are now 13-14 overall and 7-5 in the Patriot League. Holy Cross, which has wins this season against Purdue, Penn State, and Seton Hall, improved to 9-20, 3-5. Bucknell and Navy entered the day tied for first in the Patriot League, but Navy was swept at West Point, which moved the Black Knights back in front with a 6-2 league mark.

The Bison have now dropped 12 of the last 14 meetings with the Crusaders, and the two teams will meet again at the end of the month. Bucknell's final regular-season games will be a three-game set with Holy Cross on Apr. 29-30.

Bucknell has a non-conference game at Penn State on Tuesday, and thanks to the weather-related schedule delays this weekend, the Bison will be playing their fifth game in three days. They will then head back on the road for three at Lafayette on Saturday and Sunday.

Holy Cross 7, Bucknell 4 – Game 1

Holy Cross starter Luke Fox (2-2) blanked the Bison over the first four innings, and by that time the Crusaders had supplied him with a 5-0 lead. Chris Benton's pinch-hit home run in the fourth gave the hosts the five-run advantage, but Bucknell got back in it with three runs in the fifth.

Billy Kender's double started the fifth-inning rally. Jake Wortman drove him in with a single and then came around to score when Kyle Lyons' base hit got past the centerfielder. Anthony Sherwin's infield hit made it a 5-3 game.

The Bison left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, and then Holy Cross added two big insurance runs in the bottom of the frame on a two-run double by Oliver Brown. Grant Voytovich singled home a run in the seventh and final inning and the Bison got the tying run to the plate with two outs, but Jake McOsker induced a fly out to end the game.

Both teams logged seven hits in the game. Voytovich had two for the Bison, following up on his four-hit game in Sunday's nightcap at West Point. Brown went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Crusaders.

Tyler O'Neill (2-3) struck out seven over 5.1 innings but allowed six earned runs and seven hits.

Holy Cross 12, Bucknell 8 – Game 2

Once again Holy Cross wasted little time grabbing the lead, as Lucas Manning's two-run homer just two batters into the bottom of the first inning got the Crusaders on the board. Their lead ballooned to 10-0 after back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth, but the Bison made a game of it with five in the seventh and three more in the eighth.

In the seventh, Lyons singled in a run, followed by a two-run triple from Sherwin and a two-run homer from Jacob Corson. Holy Cross got one back in the bottom of the seventh before Nic Adamo's three-run blast on the first pitch from reliever Ben Talbot brought the Bison within 11-8 in the eighth. Lyons followed with a bunt single with one out, but Talbot escaped further damage.

CJ Egrie's sacrifice fly pushed Holy Cross' lead to 12-8, and Luke LeMond retired the side in order in the ninth.

Adamo went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs. He now has two homers in his last three games and has multiple hits in four of his last five starts to up his season batting average to .385. Lyons, Kender, Sean Keys, and Chris Klein all had two hits each for the Bison, who tallied 14 hits in the game.

Brown, Manning, and Connor Cooney all had three-hit games for Holy Cross. Brown had only four at-bats all season entering the day but went 5-for-8 in the doubleheader and is now 7-for-11 on the season.