WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Catholic scored four first-inning runs and led wire-to-wire as they became the first Landmark Conference team to 11 conference wins in 2024. The Cardinals improved to 21-8 on the season, leaving Ross Natoli just six wins shy of 800 for his career.
While the four first-inning runs would have been enough for the Cardinals, they added five more runs in a 9-2 victory over the Blue Jays in the second of a three-game series. With the victory, Catholic wrestles the top spot in the Landmark away from the Blue Jays.
Freshman
Sam Fairhurst earned his second career victory on the bump as he completed a career-high 7.0 innings, allowing three hits and one run. In Fairhurst's last four outings spanning 17.0 innings, his ERA has dropped from 3.75 to 1.86 while he has earned two wins and a save.
Logan Eilbacher ripped an RBI double down the left field line to score
Steve Thomas who was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Eilbacher then scored on a base knock through the right side off the bat of
Jesse Lacefield to give Catholic a 2-0 lead with one away. With runners on first and second and two away,
Jack Elwell doubled to the gap in left, scoring Lacefield and
Sammy Burman to push runs three and four of the inning across home plate.
Elizabethtown held Catholic scoreless over the next three innings before getting on the board in the fifth. David Woolley hit a one-out double off Fairhurst and scored on a Mason Woolwine RBI single back up the middle. However, a strikeout and batter's interference ended the inning for the Blue Jays.
Justin Peterson held Catholic in check, tossing 3.1 one-hit innings with eight strikeouts, but Catholic got the better of graduate Zach Silfies in a four-run seventh.
Zach Burton led the inning off with a double down line in left. Lacefield was hit by a pitch with one away and Burman came through in the clutch with a two-run double to extend Catholic's lead to 6-1. With Burman on second,
Lance Eilbacher brought him in with an RBI single to left before eventually coming around to score on a
Derek Zelesnick RBI single.
Mac Meara pitched a scoreless eighth for the Cardinals in relief of Fairhurst before Catholic pushed a final run across as Burton tripled and scored on a wild pitch. The Blue Jays got an RBI single from Alex McClain off of Meara in the ninth, but Riley Thomas lined into a double play to end the game.
Burton's three-hit day raises his season batting average to .361 and marks his 10th multi-hit game of the season. Lacefield and Burman also had multi-hit games for the Cardinals, their fifth and ninth of the season respectively. Burman raised his average up to .290 after five hits in his last two games. Thomas, Burton, Lo. Eilbacher, and Lacefield all stole bases in the victory.
Catholic will get another chance against a team ranked inside the D3baseball.com Top 25 as they face No. 8 Johns Hopkins in Baltimore tomorrow afternoon.
