Box Score The Misericordia University baseball team will head to an elimination game after falling to the Babson College Beavers, 7-5, Sunday morning in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at PeoplesBank Park in York, PA.
The Cougars jumped out to a 5-1 lead after five innings, but Babson scored three runs in the sixth and seventh innings to pull ahead and win the game.
Misericordia will play the winner of the Rowan and Virginia Wesleyan game later this afternoon. The Cougars have already defeated both those team this tournament, beating the Marlins, 4-1, in the opening game, before beating Rowan in 10 innings, Friday.
Conor Smith went 3-4 with four RBI and Steve Weisensee had two hits with an RBI and two runs scored.
Elliot Forde started the game on the mound for Misericordia and pitched six innings while striking out four and allowing four runs on just five hits.
Forde allowed a one-out double in the first, but worked around it by getting two straight fly outs to Parker Abate in center field, including a running grab on the warning track to end the inning.
After a 1-2-3 inning from Forde in the second, the Cougars took the lead in the home half. Weisensee led off the inning with a double over the right-fielder's head and subsequently stole third. Smith followed by hitting a one-out single just over the leaping shortstop's glove to give Misericordia the early lead.
Forde again held the Beavers off the board in the third, thanks to an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
The Cougars added to their lead with two runs in the third. Abate laid down a perfect bunt to lead off the inning. Alec Iurato and Santo Guinta each singled following outs to load the bases for Smith, who again delivered with a single over the shortstops head. With a full count, the runners were in motion, which allowed Abate and Iurato to score easily to put MU up 3-0.
After Babson got on the board with a run in the top of the fifth, the Cougars came right back in the bottom of the inning with two runs of their own. Tyler Holzapfel singled to lead off the inning and was sacrificed over by Iurato. Weisensee then delivered with a grounder through the right side of the infield to drive in a run. He advanced to second on the throw home and eventually came around to score on Smith's third RBI single of the day.
However, the Beavers fought back and took the lead after hitting a three-run home run in the sixth and scoring three more runs in the seventh to go up 7-5.
The Cougars threatened in the eighth by putting runners on the corners with two outs, but Holzapfel grounded out to end the inning.
The Beavers looked poised to add on to their lead in the ninth after loading the bases with no outs, but Kyle Melahn worked out of it without allowing a run.
In the bottom of the ninth, Misericordia went down in order.
The Cougars will play again this evening at 5:00 to keep their season alive.
