MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - 13th-ranked Catholic University baseball fell down 5-0 before scoring 19 unanswered runs on Tuesday afternoon to defeat Penn State-Berks 19-5 at the Ripken Experience. The Cardinals improve to 8-1 on the season and will play four more games over the next four days in South Carolina. 

13 Cardinals tallied a hit and 10 different players drove in a run as Catholic's offense was rolling on Tuesday afternoon. Jack Elwell slugged his first career collegiate homer, driving in three runs to match senior center fielder Ben Nardi's game-best total. Nardi hit a pair of doubles and was joined in the two-base stat column by Mark Villanueva, Joe Marini, Jesse Lacefield, Matthew Fisher, and Steve Thomas. 

Skylar McLean tossed four hitless innings to earn the win in relief for the Cardinals while Henry Escandon, Jake Lynes, Ryan O'Keefe, and Chance Legere each pitched scoreless innings. 

The trip got off to a shaky start as Catholic allowed five first-inning runs thanks to a pair of errors. However, the deficit did not last long as the Cardinals responded with six first-inning runs to take a 6-5 lead. Marini put Catholic on the board with a bases-loaded walk and was followed by a two-run double from Lacefieid to make it a 5-3 game. Fisher walked to load the bases once more and Derek Zelesnick picked up an RBI on another free pass to pull Catholic within one. Another walk, this one to Zach Burton, tied the game at 5-5 and forced PSU-Berks starter Tyler Peifley from the game. Nardi drew the fourth bases-loaded walk of the inning to put the Cardinals ahead. 

McLean held the Lions hitters in check until Catholic started to break the game open in the fourth. Nardi roped a one-out double to center and advanced to third on a flyout, putting him on third base with two away for Lucas Malave. Malave singled to left to score Nardi, pushing Catholic's lead to 7-5. After a Marini single pushed Malave to third, Catholic orchestrated a double steal and Malave touched home to make it 8-5 Cardinals. 

Catholic tacked on three more runs in the fifth to push the lead to 11-5. Fisher led off the inning with a double and scored on an RBI single from Zelesnick. Later in the inning, Nardi ripped a two-run double to extend the lead to six. 

After a two-run double from Marini in the seventh pushed the lead to eight runs, Catholic pushed six more runs across the plate in the eighth inning to effectively close out a blowout victory over the Nittany Lions. Liam Walsh, Ryan Moore, and Shane Newsome each drove in runs in the inning while Elwell left the yard for the first collegiate hit of his career, a three-run shot to make it 18-5. 

Catholic takes on Penn College tomorrow morning on day two of the Ripken Experience for the Cardinals.