YORK, PA-The York College baseball squad took one step closer to earning the first seed in next week’s Capital Athletic Conference baseball tournament as they defeated Catholic University 14-3 on Friday afternoon at Jaquet Field in York. The Spartans, who are ranked #23 in the nation, improve to 21-6 overall and 7-2 in the CAC. Catholic falls to 14-16 overall and 5-4 in the conference. The Spartans’ goal for Saturday is pretty clear. Post a win over St. Mary’s on Saturday and they will be the top seed in the tournament.
    The green and white kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the second. Junior Mike Santoro (Manalapan, NJ/Manalapan) drove in York’s first run with an RBI single to left. Junior Dennis Maxim (Port Jefferson Station, NY/St. Anthony’s) lifted a pop up in shallow left that ended up falling between Cardinal shortstop Joseph Maca and leftfielder Bobby Picardo for a base hit, scoring Bryan Bednarczyk (Columbia, MD/River Hill) with York’s second run. The Spartans then loaded the bases on third baseman’s Joseph Devine’s error. Sophomore Ryan Craig (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point) narrowly missed a grand slam as he drove an 0-1 pitch off the 370 sign in right center, missing a grand slam by about a foot. The double cleared the bases as York led 5-0 through two innings.
    York added two runs in the third and two more in the fourth as they led 9-0.
    The green and white scored four more in the sixth thanks to an Anthony Anzalone (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point) sacrifice fly, a two-run Santoro double to deep left, and a Maxim RBI double to left. Sophomore Ryan Poff (York, PA/Spring Grove) closed out the Spartan scoring with a solo homer to deep center in the bottom of the seventh.
    Catholic avoided the shutout with a three-run home from Robbie O’Brien in the top of the eighth inning.
    Senior Chris Brower (Mont Clare, PA/Spring-Ford) scattered four hits in seven shutout innings as he improves to 5-1. Brower struck out eight and walked two as he tossed 97 pitches in his seven frames of action. All four of the hits he allowed were singles.
    Andrew Moldawer took the loss as he falls to 1-2 for the year. Moldawer allowed nine runs, four earned, on six hits with three walks and one strikeout. He needed 87 pitches to get through his 3.1 innings of work. Brendan McGowan relieved Moldawer and allowed four runs on three hits with three walks and a strikeout in 2.1 innings of work.
    The Spartan offense was led by Craig and Santoro as they each had a pair of hits with four RBI and a run scored. Poff was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored while Bednarczyk was 1-for-1 with an RBI and three runs scored. Maxim added two hits, two RBI and a run scored. Freshman Mike Connolly (Selden, NY/Newfield) went 0-for-2 but drew three walks and scored three runs.
    O’Brien led Catholic as he was 1-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored. Matthew Rosner finished the game 3-for-4 with three singles as he was the only Cardinal with multiple hits.
    The Spartans play their final regular season conference game of the year on Saturday as they host St. Mary’s. First pitch is set for 1:00 pm at Jaquet Field. The green and white will then open the CAC tournament at home on Tuesday, April 17 against an opponent to be determined by this weekend’s games.