Scranton, PA. - The Catholic University of America baseball team split day one of its Landmark Conference series with the University of Scranton on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals took game one 10-7 over the Royals before falling 17-8 in game two.

Senior Colin Kelly opened on the rubber for the Cardinals, throwing 4.1 innings to earn his second win of the season. Sophomore Sean Carroll and junior Mark Duffy pitched relief for Catholic and junior Joseph Salzano closed, earning his fourth save of the year.

Catholic came out strong with four runs in the first inning. After a double to left field, lead off hitter, senior John Palladino, was brought home by a RBI-single from classmate Stefan Poggioli. Poggioli advanced to third when sophomore Jake Crist drove a double into left center. Both runners were brought home when sophomore Anthony Ferlise ripped a home run over the left field wall.

The Royals answered with three runs in the bottom of the first and tied the game at four a-piece with a run in the bottom of the second. The tie would not hold as Catholic freshman Bailey Lewis drove a solo homer over right field to advance the Cardinal lead.

A five-run fourth inning broke the game open for Catholic. With sophomore Danny O'Hagan on second, Palladino hit a RBI single up the middle. Palladino and Poggioli were brought home on a 2-RBI single from Lewis. With two outs on the board, Ferlise stepped to the plate a crushed his second homer of the game to bring home Lewis.

The Royals tried to rally with a run in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth, but were unable to close in on the Cardinal lead. The Cards were victorious, 10-7, in the seven-inning game.

The Royals' bats heated up in game two as they scored seven runs in the first inning, an additional run in the second, and eight more in the third. Scranton brought its tally to 17 runs in game two when they notched one more in the bottom of the fifth.

The Catholic offense remained consisted throughout game two, scoring eight runs in the seven innings, but could not contend with Scranton's heavy hitting.

Catholic's first two runs came in the third with a RBI-triple from freshman Ryan Tracy, who scored on a sacrifice fly from Palladino. Two more runs came in the fourth with an RBI from O'Hagan, who later came across the plate on a Scranton fielding error.

The top of the fifth was a five-run inning for Catholic as sophomore Bo Williams hit a 2-RBI double and junior Brett Padula brought home classmate Paul Burmester. Lewis drove a RBI single to second base in the top of the seventh to cap off the Cardinal scoring for the day.

Game three of the 3-game Landmark series between the Cardinals and Royals was originally slated for Sunday, April 3, but has been postponed. Check back on cuacardinals.com for the rescheduled date and time.