MADISON, N.J. – The Drew University baseball team scored four runs in the first inning and held off a late rally to earn a 6-5 victory over local rival Saint Elizabeth University on Thursday afternoon at Doc Young Field.
 
Freshman Brandon Kobryn worked six inning to pick up the win for the Rangers (11-9), who led 5-0 through the first four innings. Freshman Luke Tambasco and sophomore Dominic Goodenough closed out the final three innings on the mound for Drew, with Goodenough tossing the last two frames to earn his first career save.
 
Senior K.J. Hallgren and freshman Kyle Johnson each went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Rangers while junior Anthony Diaz, freshman Thomas Zammitti, and sophomore Dallas Lorenzetti all doubled.
 
Brad Edwards finished 3-for-5 to lead Saint Elizabeth (4-12).
 
Drew banged out four hits versus Eagle starting pitcher Diego Rodriguez in their big first inning, which included a two-run single from Hallgren, an RBI-double from Zammitti, and a run-scoring single from Johnson.
 
Reliever Brady Parks got the final out in the first for Saint Elizabeth and ended up retiring the first nine batters he faced. But the Rangers finally reached him in the fifth, when Lorenzetti blasted a two-out double and scored on a single from junior Justin Cece to make it 5-0.
 
In the meantime, Kobryn shut out the Eagles through the first five innings. The Eagles broke through in the sixth, however, scoring three runs on four hits to pull to within two.
 
The Rangers added a key insurance run in the bottom of the inning, when Cece walked and scored from first on a towering double to center from Diaz.
 
Saint Elizabeth pushed across an unearned run versus Tambasco in the seventh to make it 6-4. Goodenough then came on in the eighth and retired five of the first six batters he faced. But the Eagles found life when Jacob Pipercic was nipped with a pitch, then scored on a double to left from Edwards.
 
After an intentional walk, Goodenough induced a ground ball to first that took a sideways bounce on Zammiti, who smothered the ball in the dirt. He recovered in time to make the toss to a sprinting Goodenough covering first for the final out.
 
The Rangers return to Landmark Conference action this weekend, hosting 13th-ranked Catholic in a three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon.