RECORDS: College of St. Joseph's Vermont (23-21) | Marygrove College (7-38)
LOCATION: East Field Park in Glens Falls, NY
IN BRIEF: The defending national champions, the College of St. Joseph's Vermont Fighting Saints, took down the Mustangs from Marygrove College 2-0 in a great first round pitching duel.
HOW THEY SCORED: After a scoreless first five and half innings of play, the Fighting Saints had the bases loaded after a Jared Morello single and two walks. Tommy Grant stepped up to the plate and was walked bringing Morello in from third to make it a 1-0 game in favor of the Fighting Saints.
In the top of the sixth, Chase Younkin and Juan Ventura struck out but Travis Tarrence was able to draw a walk out of Nick Burch. Antonio Carta was hit by a pitch, advancing Tarrence to second and the Mustangs drew another walk to load the bases. However, Burch remained calm and was able to get Jacob Rodgers to fly out to right to get out of the jam.
In the bottom of the sixth, College of St. Joseph's Vermont Freshmen John Loshiavo reached on a fielders choice and was advanced to second with a Nick Rodriquez single. Jared Morello knocked in his first RBI of the tournament with a single to bring home Loshiavo for the 2-0 lead. The Mustangs had two runners on in the seventh, but were unable to capitalize.
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE: College of St. Joseph's Vermont pitcher Burch went the distance and struck out 13 in the process. He allowed just four hits on his 31 batters faced and walked six. Grant and Morello each had an RBI for the Fighting Saints with Morello going 2-4 at the plate.
Reed Banner of Marygrove College went five innings giving up just three hits and one earned run on his 24 batters faced. Younkin was 2-3 with a walk for the Mustangs and stole two bases. Both teams were 3-11 (.273) with runners on base in the game.
NEXT UP: The College of St. Joseph's Vermont advances to play the winner of the #6 Penn State DuBois and #3 Wright State Lake Campus Tuesday at 4:00pm EST. Marygrove moves to the elimination bracket and will play the winner of Game 8 (PSU Mont Alto vs. Loser Wright State/PSU DuBois) at 9pm EST.
