SCRANTON, Pa. (April 25, 2015) – The playoff chances of the Drew University baseball team took a hit on Saturday as the Rangers dropped both ends of a Landmark Conference twin bill at The University of Scranton, 7-5 and 8-4, in the final series of the regular season.
 
The Rangers (13-22, 10-10) are still alive in the Landmark Conference Championships hunt, but will need to beat the first-place Royals (20-12, 15-5) in the regular season finale on Sunday and hope for The Catholic University of America (21-11, 11-9) to lose to last-place Juniata College (8-24, 2-18). With the doubleheader sweep, Scranton has secured the No. 1 seed in the Landmark Conference Championships.
 
Senior center fielder Al Krause combined to hit 3-for-7 on the day with five RBIs. Sophomore right fielder Mike DiDonato extended his hitting streak to 10 straight games and delivered an RBI in each contest on Saturday.
 
The Royals set the tone in Game 1 with a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead, but Drew methodically came back to tie and eventually take the 2-1 lead by the third inning. DiDonato tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI single in the second, and a Krause sacrifice bunt scored senior shortstop Steve Kowalski (1-for-3, 1 BB, 1 run) to give Drew its only lead of the game.
 
Scranton tied it in the bottom of the third, and some defensive woes coupled with some wild pitches derailed the Rangers in the fourth. Two hits, two Drew errors and two wild pitches helped the Royals score three and take a 5-2 lead.
 
They would add on two more in the sixth, but the Rangers had plenty of fight with their last licks in the seventh frame. Down 7-2, the Rangers loaded the bases and pushed three runs across before stranding two runners on base to end the game with a 7-5 setback.
 
Drew was first to strike in Game 2 as Krause continued some hot hitting with an RBI single to left in the top of the first.
 
A Drew fielding error allowed two runs to score in the third, and a rally in the fourth gave the home team a 6-1 lead. A bases-clearing three-run double was the big strike from the Royals in the fourth.
 
RBIs from sophomore third baseman Jonathan Rodrigues and Krause crept Drew closer, 6-3, in the top of the fifth, but Scranton responded with two of its own in the bottom of the frame to maintain a five-run lead, 8-3. DiDonato continued his hitting streak with an RBI single to center in the sixth. The RBI was DiDonato's 12^th in his last 10 games.
 
The Rangers managed a Krause single to keep hopes alive in the seventh, but a 5-4-3 double play ended the game and clinched the top seed in next weekend's Landmark Conference semifinal series for the Royals.
 
Drew's last hope for the playoffs will begin at noon on Sunday, April 26 at Scranton.