WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The Catholic baseball team faced off against No. 10 Salve Regina and Dickinson for their season opening games on Friday afternoon at the Matt Kurkjian ALS Awareness Invitational. The Cardinals went 1-1 on the day, taking down the Seahawks but falling to the Red Devils. Salve Regina had a strong start, putting up two runs in the opening inning. Catholic answered quickly, with Logan Eilbacher starting things off. Lo. Eilbacher doubled down the left field line to score Sammy Burman and Chris Esquivel, tying the game at two. Gabriel Ruiz followed with a groundout to short stop, but scored Lo. Eilbacher, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.

Catholic continued to extend their lead in the second inning, with a single from Esquivel, who scored Lance Eilbacher. La. Eilbacher went on to pick up two RBI in the bottom of the fourth, with a home run to center field that also scored Matthew Fisher and put the Cardinals up 6-2 over the Seahawks.

Salve Regina attempted to claw their way back, adding a run in the fifth and eighth innings to narrow the gap to 6-4. 

Burman responded in the eighth with a homer of his own over the right field fence. The Cardinals continued to build on that momentum in the bottom of the inning, adding insurance runs to their tally. First, with a bunt from Jack Bateman that brought home Lo. Eilbacher, followed by a single from La. Eilbacher through the right side that scored Ruiz.

The Seahawks managed to find a sweet spot in the top of the final inning, with Shea Donovan and Dylan Cimini each hitting a double to add three runs in an attempt to take back the lead. But the Cardinals shut them down, defeating them 9-7.

Roman Tozzi earned the win for the season opener, with five innings pitched allowing only two hits and notching four strikeouts. Jack Scholz earned the save for the game. Tozzi tossed five strong innings while only giving up two hits and one earned run to tally the 15th win of his career.
Lance Eilbacher continued his stellar day at the plate in the bottom of the second inning with a base hit through the left side of the infield to lead off the bottom of the inning. He then put himself into scoring position by stealing second and one batter later moved up to third on another stolen base. The throw from the catcher got away and ended up in left field allowing Eilbacher to come in to score the opening run of the game. 

Both offenses went quiet throughout the middle innings until a three run rally in the top of the sixth gave the Red Devils all the momentum heading into the final three frames. A walk and a hit by pitch put the first two batters of the inning on before Johnny Bruno smoked a single off the center field wall to tie things up at one. Dickinson manufactured two more runs on ground outs in the inning to take a 3-1 advantage.

Eilbacher once again became the rally starter for the Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh inning when he ripped a triple off the wall in right field to be 90 feet from scoring with just one out. Fisher followed him up with a base hit back up the middle to pull Catholic back within 1 at 3-2. 

Catholic got the tying run into scoring position in the bottom of the ninth but found themselves down to their last out. Gabriel Ruiz came in to pinch hit and came through with a clutch base hit to right field to score Jack Elwell to survive and force extra innings.

The Red Devils scratched across a run in the top of the 10th inning with a two out single to take a 4-3 lead. The Cardinals managed to get the tying and go-ahead run into scoring position but could not get them home and ultimately fell to Dickinson by a run.

Inside the Box Score

• La. Eilbacher put together a very impressive display at the plate over the two games, going 4-for-6 with a homer, triple, three runs driven in and four runs scored. His 416 foot long ball in the first game was his second career home run. 
• In his first career start, Richard Belli put together a solid outing, going five innings while allowing three runs with eight punch outs, which was the most on the team during the afternoon. 
• Burman notched his 10th career home run in the eighth inning against Salve Regina and also put together a solid day at the plate for the Cardinals. He finished 3-for-8 with a triple, home run and one run batted in.

The Cardinals will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 21 against Dickinson. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.