MADISON, N.J. - Playing for the first time in over a year, the Drew University baseball team took on Catholic University in a Landmark Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon at a sunny Doc Young Field.
The Cardinals won the opener 3-2 before earning a 7-1 victory in the second game.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were Drew's first since March 7, 2020, when the Rangers closed out their Spring Break trip with a 9-7 win over Wilkes. The doubleheader also marked the first home games for a Drew spring sports team since the men's tennis squad's match versus Lehman and Rowan College of South Jersey on March 11 of last season. In addition, the Rangers were playing on Doc Young Field for the first time since their dramatic 8-7 win over Catholic on April 28, 2019, when Drew scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning that was capped by a walk-off single from Matt Lange C'20.
Senior
Tim Jinks and junior
Teddy Hoxie started on the mound for the Rangers. Jinks, making his first start since his freshman campaign, tossed 4 1/3 innings and racked up a career-high eight strikeouts. Hoxie worked 5 2/3 innings, striking out four.
Catholic used the long ball to its advantage, scoring three of its first four runs for the day on home runs. The Cardinals went ahead 1-0 in the opener with a solo homer from Billy Duke before the Rangers tied the game on a sacrifice fly from sophomore
Jake Welsh in the third. However, Catholic answered with single runs in the third and fourth, including a solo shot from Michael Doody in the fourth.
Senior shortstop
Cole Bosch helped manufacture a run in the sixth to make it a 3-2 game when he doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a balk. However, reliever Cam Mounts struck out back-to-back batters to leave the tying run on third.
Drew threatened again in the bottom of the seventh, when junior
Ryan Nagle was hit with a pitch with one out. Closer Ethan Risse came on and uncorked a wild pitch to put the tying run on second, but he struck out a pair to earn the save.
Jinks, a team co-captain who missed nearly his entire sophomore season with an injury, was in a groove early, firing six of his strikeouts over the first three innings when he allowed only Duke's homer. Freshman
Jake Schoffelen came on in relief and tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out two in an impressive collegiate debut.
Tucker Alch pitched five innings of one-hit ball to earn the win for Catholic.
Ben Nardi led off the second game with a home run for the Cardinals, who added two in the second to go up 3-0.
Bosch provided a defensive highlight in the third. A ball was hit back through the box and ricocheted high off the pitching mound and toward second base, and Bosch made an incredible leaping play to snare the ball out of the air. Then from the ground, he made a strong throw to first that was scooped by Welsh for the out.
The Rangers broke up Catholic starter Jack Zaffiro's shutout in the fifth, when Nagle walked and scored on an RBI-single from sophomore
Matthew Kroll. But the Cardinals answered with a run in the third before plating three more in the seventh.
Welsh finished with a pair of hits to lead the Rangers at the plate in the nightcap.
The two sides finish off their four-game series on Sunday, when they play another doubleheader at Catholic starting at 12:30 p.m.
