Baseball Drops First Game of NCAA Regionals to Randolph-Macon

Written by Joshua Soto (SJC-LI Sports Information) 

Washington, PA| The St. Joseph's College (L.I.) baseball team dropped the first game of the NCAA Mideast Regional Tournament 5-0 to Randolph-Macon at Ross Memorial Park on late Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles (24-12) will now move to the loser's bracket as the Yellow Jackets (33-6-1) will now move to the winners bracket.

Nick Maiolo led off the bottom of the second by beating out a bobbled ball in the infield. Michael Trentham would drive him home by splitting the outfielders in the right-center field gap as the Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 lead. Brandon Lubrano would then end the inning by firing back-to-back strikeouts to leave a runner stranded at second.

For the third consecutive inning the Yellow Jackets reached safely on base to lead off the inning with a double by Jeffrey Butler as Rick Spiers singled to put runners on the corners. Travis Lodge then advanced the runners as he grounded out to first to drive in the second run.

Trentham hit a line drive to second to get on base in the bottom of the fourth, he then advance to third after stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch. Michael Kroll hit a fly ball to center to drive in Trentham as the Yellow Jackets increase their lead by three (3-0).

Joe Lynn tried to get some momentum moving for the Golden Eagle after breaking James Walsh's bid for a perfect game in the fifth inning with a single back up the middle. Lynn would then steal second and advance to third after a wild throw from first base. St. Joseph's could not capitalize on the runner at third leaving Lynn stranded on base.

Spiers would use his speed to beat out a bunt back to the mound and would come all the way around to score after a wild throw giving Randolph-Macon a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Maiolo would turn on a fastball later that inning with a solo homerun taking a 5-0 lead.

Christian Sanderson singles to right field in the bottom half of the seventh and stole second, Travis Lodge then drove Sanderson in pulling a pitch down the left field line for the RBI double as the Yellow Jackets to the 6-0 lead. Maiolo would trade places with Lodge after a double for the 7-0 lead. Keeler continued to tack on after taking advantage of the shallow infield ripping a ground ball past the shortstop to add on to the run column 8-0.  

St. Joseph's came up to bat in the top of the ninth, but could not get anything going as the Golden Eagles would drop the first game 8-0.

Brandon Lubrano was credited with the loss after tossing 5 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs, six hits, and five strikeouts. 

View the full postgame press conference here.

Golden Eagles look to play another day as they will now take on Johns Hopkins University on Thursday, May 19th at 1:15 PM.