COLLEGE PARK, Md.  — The Catholic baseball team opened up Landmark Conference play with a Saturday doubleheader against Moravian. Steve Thomas put on an impressive display at the plate over the two games, and a dominant game two pitching performance led the Cardinals to a split of the first two games against the Greyhounds.

GAME ONE

• Score: Moravian 6, Catholic 5
• Records: Moravian (7-5), Catholic (6-6)
• Pitching Decision: W: Matt Snyder (5-0), L: Jake Kenney (0-2)
• The Short Story: In a tightly played game throughout, the Greyhounds came up with a two-run eighth inning to take the lead late and held on to knock off the Cardinals by a run in game one.

The scoring was kicked off in the top of the first inning when Cole Cherkus launched a solo homer into right center field to put Moravian up 1-0. It was the second homer of the season for him. Roman Tozzi worked out of a jam with two runners on with two out by inducing a grounder back to himself to limit the damage to one.

After a quiet first trip through the order, the Cardinals finally broke through on the scoreboard with two runs to take their first lead of the game. Two walks and an error loaded the bases with nobody out before Joe Marini worked a walk to bring in the first run. Dante Pozzi followed up with a hard hit sacrifice fly into left field to give Catholic a 2-1 lead. 

After a one out walk from David Vozzo, Cherkus cashed in again after he smacked an RBI double down the right field line to bring Vozzo in all the way from first to tie the game back up at two.

The Cardinals answered in the bottom of the inning after Matthew Fisher got into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Jack Bateman. Thomas roped a double just inside the third base bag to bring Fisher home. An error in the field then allowed Thomas to score and Catholic doubled the lead to 4-2.

The Greyhounds would not trail for long, using the longball to once again tie things up at four. After Matt Westcott led the inning off with a double, two batters later Ronnie Werkheiser hit the second homer of the game for Moravian to left field to pull back even in the sixth.

The swing of the game came for Moravian in the top of the eighth inning as the Greyhounds put runners on first and second with two away in the inning. Wyatt Harrar's first hit of the game was a big one, smoking a triple down the right field line to bring in both runners and put the Greyhounds up 6-4.

Thomas cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the eighth with another RBI double into right center field to pull the Cardinals back within one. However, the next five Catholic batters in the ballgame were set down to finish the game and give Moravian a 6-5 win in game one of the doubleheader.
 
GAME TWO

• Score: Catholic 7, Moravian 0 
• Records: Catholic (7-6), Moravian (7-6)
• Pitching Decision: W: Cody Bosak (2-0), L: Andrew Sagrestano (0-2), S: Camden Mounts (1)
• The Short Story: The Cardinals offense jumped on the Greyhounds pitching staff early to build a comfortable lead for Cody Bosak, who once again shut down an opposing lineup with six scoreless innings to split the doubleheader and force a rubber match tomorrow. 

Mitchel Johnson started off the early hit rally for Catholic with an RBI single to left field to plate Thomas, who led the inning off with a double into left field to give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.

The floodgates opened in the bottom of the second inning after Pozzi led the inning off with an RBI double to left center and was immediately brought in to score after Marini ripped a single into center field to bring him in. Jesse Lacefield kept the rally going with an RBI single into right field to bring Marini home. A few batters later, Logan Eilbacher put an exclamation point on the inning with a two RBI double to bring in two more runs and put a cap on a five-run inning to put the Cardinals up 6-0.

Thomas continued his incredible day at the plate with another big swing as he hit a laser over the fence in left field to add on the seventh run of the game for Catholic with his first longball of the season. The homer was the 100th career hit for Thomas and wrapped up a stellar day for him at the plate.

The Cardinals pitching locked things down throughout the game with Bosak turning in another stellar start, pitching six more shutout innings to earn himself the win. Mounts came in relief to close out the final three innings of the game to earn his first save of the season and lock down a 7-0 game two win for Catholic, its third shutout win of the season.

Inside the Box Score

• In addition to reaching the 100 career hit milestone, Thomas finished 7-for-9 over the two games with four extra-base hits and three runs driven in. He now has four games this season with three or more hits and leads the team, batting .465 (20-for-43) over the first 13 games of the season.
• Bosak punched a season-high eight tickets in the win for his second victory of the season. Over his last two starts he has gone 12 innings without allowing a run while only allowing six hits and striking out 15 batters. He currently leads the staff with a 1.59 ERA over 22.2 innings thus far this season.
• The team's five-run second inning in game two today, is the most runs they have put up in an inning thus far this season. 

The time for tomorrow's third game against Moravian has been moved up to 10:30 am due to inclement weather expected later in the day. The game will once again take place at Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium in College Park, Md..