Cary, NC-- The Lakers came back from an early 3-1 deficit to survive the elimination game over Catawba, 8-5.
Matthew Schneider was a single away from a cycle, going three for four with 2 RBI. His Homerun was the first run of the game for MU.
Jack Elliott would match Schneider's homerun with one of his own except it was three run homer and allowed MU to retake the lead. Minnick earned his 7th win on the year with great relief pitching from Lamovec and Kapturasky to close the game, earning the save.
How it Happened:
In the second inning, Schneider would break the scoreless tie with a solo homerun to left putting the Lakers on the board first, 1-0. Catawba would answer Schneider's homerun in the top half of the third with three runs of their own to take an early 3-1 lead.
Matthew Gibson would try to spark the Laker offense in the home half of the third with one out after doubling down the left field line, but would be stranded as Catawba would get the final two outs of the inning via strikeout. Minnick would force the Indians to go three up three down with two strikeouts in the fourth before Mercyhurst would also go three up, three down as we moved to the biggest inning of the night for the Lakers.
In the fifth,
Luke Baranchak would start the inning with a triple to left center before DeRenzo would send a screamer past the short stop to score Baranchak cutting the deficit to only one. Gibson would reach base again for the second at bat in a row on a walk as DeRenzo would move to second.
Jack Elliott would then maybe have one of his biggest at bats of the year with a three-run homer to right-center field giving MU a 5-3 lead.
Schneider continued the inning with some two-out lightning doubling to right center before
Josh Surowiec doubled down the right field line scoring Schneider giving Mercyhurst a 6-3 lead heading into the sixth.
Both teams would remain scoreless until the Lakers continued their two out magic in the 7th with
Alex O'Donnell singling to center field before scoring off a Schneider triple, making it 7-3. Surowiec would hammer a ball back to the pitcher and wouldn't be handled allowing him to reach first and score Schneider from third making it 8-3 Lakers.
Matthew Minnick would earn the win going 5.3 innings and striking out six batters in the process.
Russell Lamovec came in for Minnick and had a stellar performance in relief and helped lock down the Indians offense. Lamovec only allowed two hits and one earned run in 3.1 innings pitched with three punch outs before
Jared Kapturasky came in for the final batter of the inning to earn the save and strikeout the final batter of the game.
Catawba's own Myers would receive his first loss of the season after winning nine straight. Myers went 4.1 innings allowing six hits and five earned runs with seven strikeouts.
This would mark the second ever win for the Mercyhurst Lakers in the National Tournament with its first ever win coming back in 2015 against Truman State University winning 3-1 in 11 innings.
Up Next: Mercyhurst will play UC San Diego in a quarter-final matchup on Wednesday at 1:00 PM.
