Gilham and Bethel Star on CACC Baseball Weekly Report with Top Player and Pitcher Awards
New Haven, Conn. – (4/22/2019) – Chestnut Hill College’s 6-1, game one win over Bloomfield College on Wednesday, April 17, was highlighted by the 150th collegiate hit of senior catcher Eric Gilham (Deptford, N.J.) and a brilliant performance by sophomores Billy Bethel (Yardley, Pa.), who struck out a career-high 11 batters before handing the game over to fellow sophomore Will Shaffer (Sicklerville, N.J.). Gilham also went 2-for-5 with three runs and three runs-batter-in (RBI) in a 16-14 loss to West Chester University on Thursday, April 18. As a result, Gilham was named the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Player of the Week, while Bethel earned a share of the league’s weekly top pitcher award (Co-CACC Pitcher of the Week).
In game one at Bloomfield College (12-30-1, 12-14), Chestnut Hill College (22-19, 17-9) capitalized on a pair of early runs with insurance tallies in the seventh (1 run), eighth (1), and ninth (2) innings. The Griffins scored their first run thanks to a Gilham leadoff double and a pair of Bear errors, 1-0. The second came across in the fourth inning, where the first collegiate home run of sophomore right fielder Michael Perugini (Tamarac, Fla.) soared over the right field fence, 2-0. Bloomfield College hoped to rally with a tally in the fifth inning, 2-1, but the Scarlet and Gold’s late production sealed the deal for Bethel’s sixth win (6-3) of the season. The Griffin ace limited the Bears to just the one run on three hits and two walks. Gilham joined the program’s 150-hit club with his fourth hit (4-for-5) – a two-run, ninth-inning double – of the contest.
In game two, the separation came in the sixth inning, where a string of singles from sophomore centerfielder John Contoudis (Jenkintown, Pa.), Gilham, sophomore first baseman Andrew Dietz (Warrington, Pa.) and senior left fielder Franklin Ramirez (Reading, Pa.) scored the first of two Griffin runs, 2-2. The second followed soon after as fielder’s choice from freshman second baseman Luke LeBeau (Pittsfield, Mass.) plated Gilham as the game-winning run, 3-2. Gilham and Dietz were both 2-for-3 in the affair.
With 30 runs in all, Thursday’s contest with West Chester University was anything but a pitchers' duel. The Golden Rams delivered the winning runs in the top of the ninth inning, plating four runs in the frame out top the Griffins by a 16-14 margin. Perugini was the Scarlet and Gold's top performer with a 3-for-5 effort that included a run-scoring single in the first inning and a run-scoring double in the fifth inning. Four other Griffins recorded multiple hits, including Gilham, who singled in a pair of runs in the fifth inning and homered in the sixth inning.
