Baseball Defeats Rochester, Loses to Case in UAA Doubleheader

The Emory University baseball team split its doubleheader at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Tournament on Friday, defeating the University of Rochester 7-5 in the early game, but falling 8-7 to Case Western Reserve University in the late contest.

With the split, the Eagles are now 10-7 overall on the season, including a 2-1 mark in UAA play.  Rochester dropped to 4-3 overall and to 1-2 in UAA games, while Case went to 7-5 this season with a 1-2 record in conference games.

Emory earned the victory in the early game behind a strong effort from junior starting pitcher Paul Schwendel, who struck out a season-high eight batters over his six and a third innings of work, allowing five earned runs on nine hits and two walks.  Schwendel is now 3-1 on the season with a 5.14 earned run average.

Offensively, every Emory player in the starting lineup had at least one hit, as the Eagles totaled 12 hits during the game. Freshman catcher Jared Welch and freshman right fielder Brandon Hannon each drove in a pair of runs during the contest.  Welch also threw out two runners on the base paths.

After falling behind 1-0 in the second innings, the Eagles scored seven unanswered runs, including one in the third, two in the fourth and five in the fifth, taking a 7-1 lead.  Rochester would pull back within two with a four-run seventh innings, but would not get any closer.

Sophomore Mike Bitanga earned the save for Emory, his fourth of the season, not allowing a run on six hits in the final two and two thirds innings.

In the late game, Emory took a 2-0 lead over Case with a run in each of the second and third innings, but the Spartans responded with a run in the third and three in the fourth off Eagles’ starter Jason Edwards.  Reliever Ryan Orlovsky allowed another run in bottom of the fifth, giving the Spartans a 5-2 lead.

Emory would respond in the top of the sixth with a four run inning, regaining a 6-5 lead on a two-run single by Hannon with two outs.  But, Case once again scored two in the bottom of the sixth and one in the bottom of the eighth.  The Eagles pulled within a run in the ninth on Ryan Jones’ RBI single, scoring Andrew Cohn, but would strand the potential game-tying run at first base to end the game.

Reliever Matt McMahon took the loss for Emory, falling to 1-1 on the season.  Hannon finished the game three-for-four with two RBIs, raising his season batting average to .500.

Emory will return to action tomorrow at 3:00 PM, facing Brandeis University in their fourth game of the UAA Championships in Sanford, FL.