Bloomsburg Baseball Drops Doubleheader to Wilmington

NEW CASTLE, DE- The Bloomsburg University baseball team dropped a pair of games to Wilmington College (DE) on Sunday afternoon. The Huskies lost game one, 8-4, and game two, 5-4.

In game one, Wilmington jumped out to a 2-0 lead after picking up a run in each of the first two innings. The Huskies picked up a run in the third inning after a misplay by Wilmington's left fielder led to a run. However Wilmington continued to add to their lead, picking up a run in third, two in the fourth, and three in the sixth to lead 8-1.

In their last at-bat, the Huskies mounted a late rally, bringing the tying run to the plate. With runners on first and second and one out, Preston Hitchcock (Laceyville/ Wyalusing Valley) doubled in a run to cut the lead to 8-2. After the second out was recorded, Vinnie James (Bristol/ Bristol) singled home the second run of the inning. After Matt Allen (DuBoistown/ South Williamsport) was hit by a pitch, Rich Letts (Parkesburg/ Octorara) walked to force in a run to cut the lead to 8-4 and bring the tying run to the plate. After a pitching change, Wilmington got Bloomsburg's Paul Eckley (Port Matilda/ State College) to groundout to end the game.

In game two, the Huskies trailed 1-0 going into the fifth inning. In the top of the fifth, James scored on a two-base error by the right fielder to tie the game. Allen then doubled in Kevin Ward (Upper Darby/ Monsignor Bonner) to take a 2-1 lead. However, Wilmington added a run in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. Neither teams score in the sixth and seventh innings and the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the eighth James homered to lead off the inning and Andy Bucher added an RBI singled to give the Huskies a 4-2 lead. In the bottom of the eighth Wilmington rallied to load the bases with nobody out. Wilmington's Jason Rust then hit a bases clearing double to give the Wildcats a walk-off 5-4 victory.

Despite the loss, Casey Markey (York/ Dallastown) threw a complete game in game two, allowing eight hits and striking out three batters. Hitchcock led the Huskies offensively, going 3-4.

Bloomsburg, 5-12, will host Wilmington in their home opener on Wednesday at 3 p.m.