WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The Catholic baseball team started off its week with the first of two games against Rhode Island College on the docket, looking to pick up their eighth win on the season thus far. The bats were hot early and often for the Cardinals, putting up 15 runs, including four long balls, to coast to a 15-6 victory over the Anchormen.

The Anchormen pushed across two runs in the top of the opening frame, but the Cardinals promptly responded with two runs of their own to even up the score after one. Matt Perlin started off the inning with a walk and was immediately brought around to score when Lance Eilbacher ripped a single into right field and a fielding error by the right fielder allowed Perlin to cross the plate. A couple batters later, Chris Esquivel notched an RBI on a ground out to short to tie things up.

Rhode Island College once again came up with two runs on a two-RBI single in the top of the second to regain a 4-2. Catholic's offense once again answered the bell in the bottom of the inning with five runs to take control of the action with a 6-4 advantage. Michael Napolitano started off the action with a two-run shot to left field to tie the game back up before Sammy Burman and Chase Falcon each added in RBI hits later in the inning for the Cardinals.

After Jack Moholick threw up a zero in the top of the third, Catholic put up five more runs in the bottom of the third on four hits to extend the lead out to 12-4. The first three runs came in to score when Eilbacher blasted a three-run homer to left field that was 424-feet to spark the rally. Falcon once again picked up an RBI knock to center field to score Burman before Esquivel scored on a throwing error in a run down to cap off the scoring in the inning. 

The rest of the scoring for the Cardinals came in the bottom of the fourth and it came on back-to-back home runs from Napolitano and Taig McErlane to push the lead out to 10. McErlane's long ball was the first hit of his career and Napolitano earned the first multi-homer game of the season for the team. The other run in the inning was driven in by Burman on an RBI double to right field to plate Eilbacher who tripled earlier in the frame.

Catholic used several pitchers to get through the latter half of the ballgame, using eight different pitchers in total to keep Rhode Island College at bay. Throughout the final seven innings of the contest, the Cardinals bullpen held the Anchormen to just two runs with a couple pitchers making debuts with the Cardinals including James Vlastaris, Liam Cardman, Andrew Spence and Ryan Kearney. The team wrapped up a 15-6 win to improve to 8-3 on the season.

Inside the Box Score

• Napolitano secured his first career multi-home run performance in the win and now has a new career-high for home runs in a season. The senior catcher is currently hitting .368 on the season with three extra-base hits and three RBIs.
• Eilbacher regained the team lead in home runs with his fourth on the season on the three-run shot. He is also now tied for the team-lead in RBIs with Burman, each who have 13 so far on the season. Eilbacher is now batting .409 and leads the squad with 18 hits.
• McEarlane's long ball was the first hit of his career as the freshman finished the day 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and the one RBI.

The Cardinals finish the mid-week series with the Anchormen on Wednesday, March 11 at 3 pm at Talbot Field.