Box Score
Fort Pierce, FL – Marywood University closed their annual spring break trip with their second consecutive win as the Pacers downed Martin Luther College (MN) 6-5 in 10 innings Saturday morning in Fort Pierce, Florida. With the win, Marywood will return north with a 2-6 overall record while the Knights felt to 0-2.
Jeff Cleary picked up the win on the mound for Marywood after pitching 4.1 innings of relief for starter Mike Siciliano (Whippany, NJ). Siciliano struck out 10 over 5.2 innings of work but left in the middle of the sixth when he allowed two runs as Martin Luther tied the game. Cleary (Parsippany, NJ) finished strong, allowing one run on four hits while striking out five. After struggling from the mound over the first six games in which the Pacers went winless, Coach Jerry Davis’ pitching staff performed admirably over the final two games to close out spring break on a positive note.
Marywood took a 2-0 lead after three but MLC responded with two runs in the fourth. The Pacers doubled up their lead to 4-2 in the bottom half of the sixth, but again the Knights responded to tie the game. Neither team managed a run over the next three innings of play, forcing extra innings to decide a winner.
In the bottom half of the tenth, Ryan Cusomato (Sparta, NJ) led off with a single and moved to third when T.J. Czerw singled. After Jason Bugno (Clarks Summit, PA) was hit by a pitch to load the bases for the Pacers, Nicholas Pasqualichio (Clarks Summit, PA) singled to score Cusomato from third to give Marywood a 5-4 lead. After the Knights picked off a pinch-runner at third, Shane Miller (Scranton, PA) walked to once again give Marywood a bases loaded situation. Dave Maione (Endwell, NY) then hit a sacrifice fly to center and a tagging Bugno scored to put Marywood up two.
Martin Luther would not go quietly, however, and in the bottom of the tenth had an opportunity to send the game to another extra inning. After a single, walk and ground, the Knights had runners on second and third with just one out. They managed to single to right to score one runner, but a beautiful relay play between right-fielder David Lewis (Scranton, PA), Justin Magistro (Carbondale, PA) allowed Bugno to tag the runner from second out at the plate to end the threat.
The Pacers' northern opener against Widener has been canceled and Marywood will return to the field against Wilkes University on Tuesday, March 16. The single nine-inning game will be played at Wilkes' Artillery Park in Kingston with first pitch set for 3:30 pm.