Baseball

    YORK, PA-The top-seeded York College baseball team suffered their worst loss of the season as the University of Mary Washington Eagles eliminated the Spartans, 11-1, in the semifinals of the 2007 Capital Athletic Conference tournament at Jaquet Field in York. The Spartans, who have not lost two straight since the first two games of the season, fall to 24-8. The Eagles now advance to face Salisbury in Sunday’s championship round. The Eagles are 24-8-1 for the campaign.
    The Eagles struck for a run in the first on a Tom McDermott sacrifice fly. Mary Washington added two runs in the third on a Jon Sims double that landed just inside the right field line, scoring Mike Murphy and Eric Fitzgerald.
    Mary Washington blew the game wide open in the fifth, scoring seven times highlighted by a Fitzgerald grand slam. The Eagles got their seven runs on seven hits in the inning.
    While the Eagles had no trouble getting clutch hits, the Spartans struggled all day to plate a run. York left two on in the second, two on in the fourth, the bases loaded in the sixth, and two more in the seventh before finally getting on the board eighth inning. The Spartans scored one run in 18 innings on Saturday, their worst two-game output of the year. They stranded 11 runners in the game and seven runners in the shutout loss to Salisbury.
    The Eagles received five hits from Murphy and Fitzgerald as they caused problems all day for the Spartans. Fitzgerald was 5-for-6 with four RBI and a pair of runs scored. Murphy was 5-for-6 with a run scored. Chris Anderson added three hits and a run scored while catcher Alex Rossi was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.
    The Spartan offense was led by Mike Santoro (Manalapan, NJ/Manalapan) as the Spartan catcher hit the ball hard all day. He was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Santoro’s two outs were line drives to deep left field. Anthony Anzalone (Rocky Point, NY/Rocky Point) had a pair of singles in three at bats while freshman David Moller (Schnecksville, PA/Parkland) contributed a pair of hits to the Spartan lineup.
    Brett Diamond earned the win as he tossed seven shutout innings. He scattered eight hits, struck out three and walked a pair as he improves to 6-1. Craig Miles allowed a run on two hits in his two innings of relief work.
    Spartan starter Matt Austin (Shrewsbury, PA/Susquehannock) suffered the loss as he falls to 6-2. He allowed six runs, five earned, on 10 hits in 4.1 innings of work. Austin struck out one and walked one other. Jake Hughes (Schwenksville, PA/Souderton) allowed five runs on six hits in 1.2 innings of action while senior Brendan Gilroy (Ridley Park, PA/Ridley) threw the final three innings, allowing just three hits during his outing.
    The Spartans return to action on Tuesday as they must turn their attention to earning at at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. York begins its final ten game stretch in the regular season with a game against Rutgers-Newark on Tuesday at York College. Game time at Jaquet Field is set for 3:30.