FORT MYERS, Fla.–Playing its second set of nine-inning games in 24 hours, the Swarthmore College baseball team improved to 4-7 on the season with a 8-6 win over Rockford and a 7-4 triumph against Baruch on Wednesday, March 8.
Two freshmen picked up their first wins on the mound with starting pitchers
Tommy Bothwell and
Jack Corkery as the pitchers of record, respectively.
Griffin Kammerer was credited with a save in each half of the doubleheader and Jackson was effective in relief in both games.
Against Rockford,
Charles Levitt,
Conor Elliott,
Jared Gillen,
Matt Palmer and
Ryan Burnett all had a pair of base hits. Levitt, Gillen and Palmer each crossed the plate twice and Levitt added two RBIs as the leadoff man.
Swarthmore capitalized on seven errors by the Regents in the first two innings to amass a 3-1 lead. In the third, the Garnet put three runs on the board with Palmer's RBI single to score
James Rutledge, a wild pitch and a groundout by
Jaron Shrock.
Swarthmore scored a run each in the fourth and fifth innings for a 7-2 lead over Rockford. The Regents, however, capitalized on a fielding error in the seventh and followed up with two doubles and two singles to move closer at 8-5 with runners on the corners. An expertly-turned 643 double play ended the inning and the threat from the Regents. With Kammerer on the mound and the game-tying run on first, Swarthmore closed out the game with an 8-6 win.
In game two, Elliott stayed hot, going 3-5 in the cleanup spot. Seven different players crossed the plate for Swarthmore, including shortstop
Max Grullon, who had his fourth multi-hit game of the season. Baruch scored early on a pair of extra-base hits, but Swarthmore overtook them with three runs in the third, punctuated by
Cal Barnett-Mayotte's two-RBI single, and never surrendered the lead.
The Bearcats scored a run in the bottom of the seventh and came within one at 5-4 before Swarthmore responded immediately with two runs in the top of the eighth. Palmer scored after reaching on a double and Barnett-Mayotte scored on a sac fly by Burnett.
Swarthmore plays a single game on Thursday, March 9 against Dominican University (Ill.) at 3 p.m.
