WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The Catholic baseball team looked to bounce back with a Landmark doubleheader against Lycoming on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals rebounded after dropping the first game of the day with a well-pitched performance to split the first two games of the series against the Warriors. The Warriors came up with three runs in the top of the first inning to take command early in the contest. Brody Lindsey and Eric MacCluen each picked up RBI knocks in the inning to help spark the Lycoming offense in the inning.

After Roman Tozzi set the side down in order in both the second and third inning, Catholic broke through for the first time in the bottom of the third to cut into the deficit. Jack Bateman notched the first hit of the game for the Cardinals with a base-hit to center field and Matthew Fisher followed up with a single of his own to put two runners on for Sammy Burman. Burman came through with a two-out RBI double to the fence in left field to bring both runners home to make it a 3-2 game.

The tying run was immediately in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth when Gabriel Ruiz roped a triple out to right field to be 90 feet from scoring. Lance Eilbacher on the next at-bat grounded a ball to second that allowed Ruiz to cross the plate to tie the game up at three.

The Cardinals had opportunities to take their first lead of the game in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, but the Warriors pitchers worked out of jams, including a bases loaded no-out situation, to keep the game all square at three.

Lycoming's offense grabbed hold of the game in the top of the seventh inning when they scored five runs on five hits to get out to an 8-3 lead. They went on to tack on two more runs in the top of the ninth and kept the Cardinals in check for the remainder of the contest to come away with a seven run win in game one.
After Jack Dufficy threw up two zeros to start things off in game two, the Cardinals gave him a lead to work with in the bottom of the second inning after Fisher and Eilbacher each reached base to start the inning. Chris Esquivel moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt and Gus Wright immediately brought Fisher in to score with a sacrifice fly into right field for his first career RBI. Bateman brought in the second run of the inning when he poked an RBI double to left center field to score Eilbacher, making it a 2-0 advantage.

Dufficy continued to keep the Lycoming lineup in check, allowing the Cardinals to add on to the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. After the first two batters of the inning were retired, Chris Esquivel provided a spark with a triple to center field. An error from the Warriors allowed Esquivel to come in to score and Bateman added another RBI to his tally with a single through the right side of the infield to score Wright to extend the lead to four.

Dufficy allowed the lone run of his outing in the top of the fifth but limited the damage to just the one run to complete a strong outing. Jack Elwell started the bottom of the inning off with a single to right field and was moved up to third when Ruiz ripped a double to left center. Fisher picked up a sacrifice fly to score Elwell to make it a 5-1 win.

The Cardinals scratched across another run in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to five. Michael Napolitano tacked on another run to the lead when he slashed a single through the left side to bring Bateman to the plate.

Jake Kenney pitched the final three innings of the game for Catholic and locked things down, only allowing one hit with four strikeouts to close down a 6-1 victory. The Cardinals are now 11-7 on the season and collected their first conference with the game two victory.

Inside the Box Score

• Dufficy earned his second win of the season with his five inning performance, picking up five punch outs along the way, while only allowing three hits. Over 10.1 innings, the freshman now holds a 3.48 ERA with 11 strikeouts.
• Bateman had a solid day over the two games going 4-for-6 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored. He has now hit safely in the past five games that he has recorded an at-bat in. 
• Ruiz came up with multiple extra-base hits over the two games and raised his average to .280 on the season.

The Cardinals will finish the series with the Warriors on Sunday, March 22 at Talbot Field with first pitch coming at 12 pm.