The Chestnut Hill College Baseball team extended their winning streak to five games with an 8-1 win in the opening game of the divisional crossover series with the University of Bridgeport on Sunday before the Purple Knights snapped the streak with a 7-3 win in game two.
The Griffins are now 11-15 overall and 5-3 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games with the split. Bridgeport is now 7-20 overall and 3-7 in league play.
Brendan Long earned the win for the Griffins in the opener, pitching six innings of one-run ball. Long allowed five hits while striking out three.
Marlon Rose pitched a scoreless seventh inning, striking out one and allowing one hit.
Eight different CHC players had at least one hit in the opener with five of the team's 11 hits going for extra-bases.
David Antone drove in two runs, while
Zack Ahmed extended his hitting streak to ten games with a pair of singles.
RJ Huth doubled in
Ahmaad Goldson, who had doubled to lead off the second inning. Huth then stole third and scored on a throwing error by the Bridgeport catcher staking CHC to a 2-0 lead. One inning later, the Griffins scored four more runs on five hits to take a 6-0 lead, with the big blow a two-run double by Antone.
Ahmed's second hit of the game in the sixth brought home
Nate O'Donnell with the seventh Chestnut Hill run. Bridgeport's Vin Mallon hit a solo home run to left center field in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 7-1. Goldson singled to score
Justin Geiger in the seventh with the final run of the game.,
In the nightcap, Bridgeport jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then scored four times in the sixth to pull away and win 7-3.
Benjamin Bradt took the loss pitching four innings and allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out three.
Kade Breisblatt pitched the next 1.2 innings, allowing five runs before
Colby Seelig came in to get the final out of the sixth inning.
Huth had two of the Griffins' four hits in the contest while Geiger and
John Crane had an RBI apiece. Ahmed had his hitting streak snapped after being retired on a pop-up in a pinch hitting appearance.
UB's Shane McCone drove in the first two Purple Knights' runs with hits in the second and fourth innings. Another RBI hit by Bridgeport in the fifth, gave the hosts 1 3-0 advantage.
Geiger singles to score Huth with CHC's first run in the top of the sixth. Bridgeport then strung together four runs on four hits in the bottom half of the inning to take a commanding 7-1 lead.
In the Griffins' final at-bat, Crane was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score
Greg Sylvester (also reached on a HBP to lead off the inning).
Eli Meredith then scored on a fielder's choice to make the final score 7-3.
The Griffins' baseball team returns to action on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, with a game at West Chester University. This game is the first rounds game of the Bill Giles Invitational Tournament. The winner will later play Jefferson University in the Bill Giles Championship game at Citizen's Bank Park. First pitch for the West Chester game is set for 3:00 p.m.
