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Catholic University of America

Scoreboard

Official Website of Catholic University of America Athletics
Ryan Tufford | Catholic Athletics
5
Arcadia AUBB 17-10
21
Winner Catholic CATHU 17-7
Arcadia AUBB
17-10
5
Final
21
Catholic CATHU
17-7
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Arcadia AUBB 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 5 6 3
Catholic CATHU 4 3 0 7 3 0 2 2 X 21 16 1

W: Fairhurst, Sam (1-0) L: Luke Hinkle (1-1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Jeff Jezewski

Power Surge Pushes Catholic To 21-5 Victory Versus Arcadia

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Catholic baseball blasted its way to victory, hitting six home runs, in a 21-5 win over Arcadia on Tuesday afternoon. The Cardinals improved to 17-7 on the season as Ross Natoli now sits just 10 shy of 800 career victories. 

Mitchel Johnson cracked a pair of blasts, driving in eight runs to lead Catholic while reigning Landmark Conference Athlete of the Week Logan Eilbacher remained scorching hot at the plate with a pair of bombs and four RBI. Zach Burton and Lance Eilbacher each hit a homer on Tuesday to give Catholic a season-high six big flies. 

After a three up, three down inning from freshman starter Sam Fairhurst, the Cardinals left the yard twice in the first inning, making it a short outing for Arcadia's Luke Hinkle. Steve Thomas led off the inning with a single up the middle, followed by a two-run towering shot off the bat of Burton. Johnson singled up the middle and Lo. Eilbacher hit a moon shot to deep left to give Catholic a 4-0 lead. 

Trevor Laraia was the next man up for Arcadia in the second, but the Cardinals got to him for three runs in the second to take a 7-0 advantage. Sammy Burman singled to right and Burton drew a two-out walk to set up Johnson who hit his first home run of the day, a three-run shot to left. 

Laraia worked a quick third inning, but was touched up for five more runs in the fourth inning before departing the contest. Burman singled and stole second before Matt Perlin reached on a throwing error. Thomas drove in Burman with an RBI single back up the middle to make it an 8-0 lead. Burton once again walked, loading the bases for Johnson who hit a sky-high blast to left center, clearing the wall for a grand slam and a 12-run lead. The Cardinals would score two more later in the inning as Burman roped a two-run triple to right center, scoring Jesse Lacefield and Lo. Eilbacher. 

The lead grew to 15-0 in the fifth as Johnson added his eighth RBI of the day, driving in Thomas with a sacrifice fly. With Burton on base after a single, Eilbacher delivered his second two-run shot of the contest, pushing Catholic's lead to 17. 

Fairhurst finished the sixth inning, earning the victory with a line of 6.0 innings, one hit, no runs, and one strikeout. The freshman needed just 60 pitches as he grabbed his first career victory. 

The Knights would get on the board in the seventh, pushing four runs across the plate, but Catholic wasn't done with the bats just yet. Thomas picked up his third single of the day before scoring on La. Eilbacher's first career home run. 

Leading 19-4 in the bottom of the eighth, Daniel Nellum brought in run number 20 with a sacrifice fly to right while Mark Villanueva picked up an RBI ground out to push the lead to 21-4. The Knights added one final run in the ninth before Will Hanson finished off a 21-5 victory. 

BY THE NUMBERS
  • Eight Catholic players combined for 16 hits in the victory with Thomas (3), Johnson (3), Burman (3), Burton (2), and Lo. Eilbacher (2) each recording multi-hit games. Eight players also drove in runs in Catholic's victory. 
  • Catholic's 21 runs are its most in a game since a 25-4 victory over Drew on April 2, 2023. Catholic's six home runs are its most in a game in at least 20 years and ties the Landmark Conference record. 
  • Johnson eight RBI left him just one shy of the Landmark Conference single-game record. It is his sixth multi-RBI game of the season and the junior leads Catholic with 30 RBI in 2024. 
  • Thomas makes it back-to-back three-hit games, giving him five multi-hit games in his last six contest. He is hitting a team-high .391 on the season and has 10 more hits than any other Cardinal. 
  • Burton's homer is his fifth of the season and 16th of his career. He has seven multi-hit games in 2024. 
  • Lo. Eilbacher's hit streak is now eight games with multiple hits in six of those eight. In his last five contests, he is hitting .611 (11-18) with four home runs and 10 RBI. 
  • Fairhurst lowers his season ERA to 2.05 in 22.0 innings while picking up the first win of his Catholic career. 
Catholic will hit the road to take on No. 4 Salisbury tomorrow afternoon. 

 
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