MADISON, N.J. – The Drew University baseball lost 5-3 in its final Landmark Conference regular-season game of the year on Sunday at Doc Young Field at Lonnstrom Stadium.
 
However, good news came shortly after the game: Susquehanna University defeated Wilkes University, which clinched a Landmark Conference playoff berth for the Rangers.
 
Drew (21-16, 13-11 LC) earned the fifth and final spot in the conference championship and will visit either Susquehanna or the University of Scranton in the first-round game on Tuesday, May 7. It will mark the Rangers first conference playoff appearance in a non-COVID season since 2017.
 
Against Elizabethtown (27-10, 16-6 LC), nearly all of the offense came in the first inning. The Blue Jays scored four in the top of the first on one hit, five walks, and a hit batsman.
 
Drew answered with two in the bottom half, when seniors Anthony Diaz Jr. and Anthony Hernandez hit back-to-back singles leading off before scoring on a sacrifice fly from junior Raiden Yost and a single from senior Billy Coleman.
 
The two sides combined for just one run apiece over the final eight innings. The Rangers made it a one-run game in the third, when Hernandez led off with another single before eventually scoring on a single from freshman Aiden Mitchell as the Rangers inched to within 4-3.
 
Elizabethtown scored the final run of the game in the fourth on one hit in the fifth.
 
Four different pitchers took the mound for the Rangers, freshman Justin Bonito, who tossed three scoreless innings while striking out three. Junior Kenny Yonker allowed just one run over 3 2/3 innings before Yost fired 2 1/3 innings.
 
Hernandez finished 2-for-4 with a pair of runs for the Rangers while Coleman also roped a pair of hits. 
 
Logan Burns tossed a complete-game six-hitter for the Blue Jays.
 
Drew closes out the regular season with a pair of non-conference game, taking on Saint Elizabeth University on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. and City College of New York at the same time on Wednesday.