NEW CASTLE, Del. - - In two completely different games, the No. 25 Wilmington University baseball team swept a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference doubleheader from the University of the Sciences, 12-1 and 6-4, at Wilson Field on Wednesday afternoon.
Playing as the visiting team due to poor field conditions at the Devils' home field, the Wildcats (15-9, 3-1 CACC) backed the arm of Ray Gambone with 18 hits in game one and needed a late rally to seal the sweep in game two.
Gambone improved to 3-1 on the season with another strong outing, pitching eight innings while only allowing one run on three hits. He struck out 10 batters on just over 100 pitches, upping his team lead to 28 strikeouts on the season. He turned the ball over to Rob Gore for the ninth whole struck out a batter in a scoreless inning to close the door on the game one win.
Allow Gambone dominated from the mound, the Wildcats were up against a tough task in reigning CACC Pitcher of the Year Dan McMahon for USciences (5-7, 0-2 CACC). Wilmington got to McMahon early and often, tagging him for 12 hits, seven runs (five earned) in seven innings of work. They put two runs on the board in each of the first and third innings while adding a solo run in the fifth before getting two more off the starter in the seventh.
Six batters collected multiple hits in the first game, led by Kyle Lindstrom's 3-for-5 performance with a triple, a double, four RBI's and a run scored. Jonathan Rodriguez collected the most hits, going 4-for-5 with two RBI's and two runs scored, while Josh Hampton and Jordan Johnson also had three hits apiece. Jon Castro and Sam Goines each went 2-for-4 in game one while Castro crossed home plate on three different trips. Matt Lopes rounded out the 18 hits, going 1-for-3 with two RBI's and a run scored.
The night cap to the doubleheader was a little slower to develop, as the Wildcats and Devils were knotted at 1-1 going into the sixth inning.
With two outs and the bases empty, a walk to Hampton came back to haunt the Devils' staff, as back-to-back single by Lopes and Rodriguez brought him home for the go-ahead run.
But the lead was short lived for the Wildcats as the Devils responded in the bottom of the sixth. A leadoff walk came around to score off game two starter Frank Samluk for the innings first run. With the bases loaded and two outs, it looked as though reliever Jarrett Shaffer was going to get out the jam, getting the Science's Ronnie Petito to strike out swinging, but the ball got away from Lopes behind the plate, allowing the inning to continue. A fielding error on the next at-bat brought home the Devils' third run of the inning, allowing them to take a 4-2 lead.
The Wildcats fought right back in the next half inning, getting to starter C.J. Hertz within the first two batters. Goines led off the inning with a single into left field before Joe Marciano launched his first home run of the season into the trees in right field to quickly tie the ballgame.
After Tyler Fries worked out of a one-out jam in the seventh, the Wildcats came right back in the eighth to strike for two more runs, all coming with two outs in the inning. Rodriguez led off the inning by reaching on an error and three batters later, while standing on third with two outs, came home for the go-ahead run as Marciano came through once more with a single into left center. Johnson added an insurance run by beating out an infield single to second, scoring Marciano from second.
Fries worked a scoreless eighth inning before turning it over to Nick Marics who worked around a leadoff double to record his fifth save of the season.
Marciano and Brendan Fallers each went 2-for-3 while Marciano recorded three RBI's and scored three runs in game two. Johnson batted 1-for-5, knocking in a pair of runs as well.
Fries picked up the win in game two, improving to 3-0 on the year after working 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball. He recorded four of the five outs via the strikeout.
University of the Sciences, which earned its first ever NCBWA East Region Ranking earlier this week with the 10th position, received 7.2 innings from Hertz but was saddled with the loss to fall to 2-2 on the year.
The Wildcats have another important CACC doubleheader this weekend, playing a pair against Bloomfield at Wilson Field. First pitch of the two-game set is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.