WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The Catholic baseball team looked to capture its first conference series win of the season against Drew on Sunday afternoon after splitting the two games on Saturday. The Rangers brought in four runs in the first inning to grab the momentum early and used a stellar starting pitching performance to take down the Cardinals 10-2.

The Rangers loaded the bases after a walk and back-to-back bunt singles from the first three hitters of the game. Nick Donofrio brought in the first two runs of the game with a base-hit back up the middle with the other two runs coming in with two outs in the inning on an error.

The Cardinals had a chance to strike back in the bottom of the inning when Matt Perlin, Chase Falcon and Matthew Fisher all worked walks to load the bases but Jayce Thoroughman settled in and struck out the last batter of the inning to keep the lead at 4-0.

Landon Penney was lights out for the rest of his start for Catholic as he only allowed two base runners from the second through sixth inning and had multiple innings with less than 10 pitches thrown. Overall for the start, he finished with a career-high seven innings pitched with just three earned runs allowed and a pair of strikeouts. 

Drew opened up a comfortable lead by adding on five more runs in the top of the eighth inning to extend the lead to 10-0. Perlin led-off the bottom of the inning with a knock to center field and was later brought in when Sammy Burman ripped an RBI double off the wall in left center field to get Catholic on the scoreboard.

Freshman Rowan Griffith received a pinch-hit opportunity in the bottom of the ninth and made the most of it by blasting his first career home run over the fence in left center to make it 10-2. Griffith also picked up his first career RBI on the swing. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 10-5 on the season.

Inside the Box Score

• Penney's career-long outing brought him to 21 innings pitched on the season, which is the second-most on the team thus far. He holds a 2.14 ERA with 16 strikeouts to just five walks.
• Perlin was the lone Cardinal hitter to record multiple hits in the contest, going 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and a run scored. He is now batting .324 on the season and has the team's third-highest on-base percentage at .465.
• Thoroughman also through his career-long outing for Drew, completing seven innings while only allowing two hits with a career-high eight strikeouts to hold Catholic in check. 

The Cardinals are back in action for another Landmark matchup against Elizabethtown in a stand alone game. First pitch is set for 3 pm at Talbot Field.