WASHINGTON, D.C  – The Catholic baseball team came in on a roll on Tuesday afternoon against Elizabethtown and looked to continue to build upon its longest win streak of the season. In a roller coaster of a contest that saw multiple lead changes, the biggest swing of the day came from Sammy Burman who launched a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to propel the Cardinals to a thrilling 12-11 win over the Blue Jays to improve to 18-14 on the season.

Burman's homer came with one away in the eighth inning and it was his team and conference leading seventh of the season to set the Cardinals up for a victory. Will Hanson was given the ball in the top of the ninth to go for the save and retired the first two batters with ground outs before a walk and a hit by pitch put the tying run in scoring position. Hanson kept his composure and punched out the final batter he faced to lock down the win for Catholic. It marked the first win for the team in its previous eight matchups against Elizabethtown.

Catholic faced some adversity in the sixth inning as Elizabethtown grabbed control of the game with five runs in the top of the inning to take its largest lead of the afternoon. The Cardinals quickly put the pressure back on the Blue Jays in the bottom of the frame when Jack Bateman and Chris Esquivel singled and Matt Perlin drew a walk to load the bases with one out. Burman came up with his first key swing of the day when he rolled a single back up the middle to plate the first two runs of the inning. Chase Falcon would keep the rally going two batters later when he collected an RBI single to right field to cut the deficit down to two. Gabriel Ruiz brought the game back to square one by ripping a single back into center field to bring in Burman and Matthew Fisher to make it an 11-11 score.

Coen Devillier was huge in relief for the Cardinals, coming into the game in the seventh inning and delivering two shutout innings to give Catholic the chance to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth. It was the first time in his career that he went longer than an inning on the mound.

Catholic was trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the third, but a big swing from Lance Eilbacher changed the score quickly after Fisher reached on an error to start the inning. Eilbacher blasted a ball over the fence in the center field for his fifth long ball of the season to tie things back up. Later in the inning, Bateman perfectly placed an infield single to the left side to bring Ruiz to the dish to make it a 6-5 game.

The Cardinals offense got rolling from the start of the game with a three-spot in the bottom of the first as Fisher brought in the first run of the ballgame with a sacrifice fly into right field. Falcon brought in the other two runs in the frame with a base-hat to center field.

Inside the Box Score

• With Burman's three RBIs in today's win, he is now second in the Landmark in RBIs this season with 36 and currently holds the team lead. This is the first time in his career that he has hit a go ahead homer in the eighth inning or later. Additionally, the senior leads the conference in home runs with seven. 
• Perlin had a career day, going 3-for-4 at the plate, tying his career-high hits from his debut season, while also logging two runs. Perlin now has the second highest batting average on the team this season at .337.
• Devillier collected the first win of his career, logging two strikeouts across two innings pitched. Hanson picked up his third save of the season and continues to hold an impressive ERA with a 1.71 over 26.1 innings this season.

The Cardinals are back on the diamond on Saturday, April 18 at 1 pm when they take on Penn State Harrisburg on Talbot Field.