Aldrich Strikes Out Four for Shoremen

CHESTERTOWN, MD - Russell Coover's two-run double to shallow centerfield with two outs in the top of the eighth inning proved to be the winning hit as visiting McDaniel scored a 4-3 win over host Washington College on Friday afternoon in Centennial Conference baseball action at at Athey Baseball Park. The Green Terror improve to 6-12 overall and 2-8 in conference play, while the Shoremen fall to 11-9 and 6-4 respectively.

With the score tied 2-2, McDaniel loaded the bases in the top of the eighth with no outs. The Shoremen recorded the next two outs on force plays at home plate. Coover hit a shallow fly ball to centerfield that freshman Sean Connole (Mt. Airy, MD/St. John's Catholic) made a diving effort on but could come up with the ball. The ball landed behind him and scored two runs to put the Green Terror up 4-2.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Shoremen got the first the two runners on a base hit by freshman Tyler Cotterell (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) and a walk by senior Chris Keiper (Toms River, NJ/Monsignor Donovan) to put runners on first and second base. Both would move up to third on a groundout with one away. Cotterell would score on an RBI groundout off the bat of sophomore John Rolewicz (Bear, DE/Salesianum) to cut the McDaniel lead to 4-3. On the play Keiper moved up to third. The next batter, senior Matt Boucher (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) struck out on a pitch by Gio Fricchione to end the ballgame.

The Shoremen scored the game's first run on a single by sophomore Ben Jardot (McLean, VA/Flint Hill School) that plated Connole to make it 1-0 in the bottom of the first. The score would stay that way until the top of the fifth when Coover launched a two-out home run to left field to level the score at 1-1. Washington would regain the lead in the bottom half of the fifth when Rolewicz hit a single to right field that chased in senior Brian Kramer (Fairfax, VA/W.T. Woodson) to give WC the lead at 2-1.

McDaniel would tie the game in the top of the sixth at 2-2 on a fielder's choice off the bat of Tyler Jackow that scored Jimmy Najera.

For McDaniel, Coover was 2-for-4 with three RBI and Najera was a perfect 4-for-4 from the dish with a run scored. Matthew Pace had two hits for the Green Terror. On the mound, Brian Rosato got the win as he pitched eight-plus innings, giving up just two earned runs, to improve to 1-4 on the year. Fricchione pitched the ninth after the first two batters and recorded his second save of the year.

Freshman Ryan Mulhearn (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth Area) was the lone WC player to rack up two hits as he went 2-for-4. Rolewicz drove in two of the Shoremen's three runs on the afternoon. On the mound, freshman Joe Kearney-Argow (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape) took the loss and falls to 2-1. He pitched the last three innings, giving up the last two runs. Freshman Kyle Aldrich (Warren, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional) pitched the first six innings, striking out four and allowing just two runs in the start.

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