GLENSIDE, Pa.–The Swarthmore College baseball team opened the 2017 campaign with a pair of losses to the Arcadia University Knights on Saturday, Feb. 25, falling 4-3 in the first game and 10-4 in the nightcap.
Charles Levitt finished the doubleheader with four hits and freshman
Cole Beeker had a strong college debut, recording four hits, including two doubles, and a pair of RBIs.
In game one, the Knights scored two runs early and kept a 2-0 lead until the fourth inning. The freshman Beeker led off the frame with a double down the right field line and scored two batters later on a sac fly by
Conor Elliott. Starting pitcher
Ricky Conti kept the hosts off the scoreboard in the fifth and the Garnet claimed their first advantage in the top of the sixth.
Beeker doubled in senior
Ryan Burnett and Elliott drove in his second run of the morning on a single that brought home
Holden Bridge, Beeker's pinch runner. Arcadia, however, answered with two runs of its own to regain the lead. Levitt doubled in the top of the seventh to reach scoring position with one out, but could not be brought home.
Ricky Conti was charged with the loss after 5.2 innings.
In game two, Levitt started things off with a single, stole second and third and then scored shortly after on Beeker's base knock. The Knights took advantage of two fielding miscues by the visitors to tie the game in the first and scored five more unanswered for a 6-1 lead.
In the fifth,
Cal Barnett-Mayotte earned a lead-off walk and eventually scored on a fielding error by the third baseman. Beeker loaded the bases for classmate
Jared Gillen, who plated two runs with a single to center field. At 6-4 with the tying run base, Swarthmore was unable to add to its total and remained behind. The Knights put the game out of reach with four additional runs in the sixth and improved to 2-0 on the year.
Swarthmore has a quick turnaround when it hosts nonconference foe Elizabethtown for a doubleheader at MSI Sports Village in Garnet Valley, Pa. on Sunday, Feb. 26. The first pitch is scheduled for noon.