After an eventful couple of weeks, the baseball team took home the title from the 12th annual University Athletic Association (UAA) tournament in Sanford, Fla.
On Tuesday night, the Eagles defeated the Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) Bears 8-2, moving towards the sought-after first place position and pushing their record up to 12-6 overall and 3-1 at the conference tournament.
A number of players came forward with excellent play in this game, including a number of seniors for whom this is a particularly sentimental season.
Senior Ben Hinojosa pitched six and two thirds solid innings, while senior Mike Bitanga finished the game allowing just one hit after pitching two and a third shutout innings.
The game started with three runs scored in the top of the first on a single by senior Daniel Iturrey, a bases-loaded walk to senior Jared Welch and a sacrifice fly from freshman Philip Maldari.
The team didn't stop there, pushing the score up to 4-0 with a run on doubles from Welch and senior Josh Bokor in the third inning.
In the seventh inning, the Eagles took advantage of a Wash. U error and scored yet another run, followed by another on a wild pitch in the ninth.
Maldari added a one-for-two day with two RBIs while Welch finished the game one-for-two with three walks, two runs scored and two RBIs. Senior Brandon Hannon, junior Brett Lake and senior Jared Kahn all contributed multiple hit performances as well.
"The UAA tournament is a tough tournament to win considering we played eight games in eight days, but with our strong bats and pitching, we were able to grind out some tough games and come out on top," Bokor said. "It took a team effort and everyone contributed to our success."
In the second game against University of Rochester (N.Y.), sophomore Paul Merolla threw a complete-game shutout to lead the Eagles to an 11-0 win. The last complete game shutout was thrown by junior Connor Dillman against Brandeis University (Mass.) in the 2012 UAA Championships.
Lake went one-for-four, including a two-RBI single as part of a six-run sixth inning.
With that, he extended his hitting streak to 20 games. Senior shortstop Kahn drove in a pair of runs with a two-for-three performance, including a triple.
Junior Wes Peacock and Maldari each had a pair of hits as well. Bokor had two RBIs in the game. Once again, it was a team effort that drove the Eagles to their sweet victory.
At the third game of the UAA's, Emory defeated Brandeis 10-6, keeping the team in second place in the conference standings.
Welch led the first score of the game in the top of the second inning when he drove in a run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Seniors Ryan Toscano and Bokor extended Emory's lead to 3-0 in the third inning.
Freshman Kyle Monk pitched a pair of scoreless innings, and Iturrey sealed the deal with a run in the top of fourth on an RBI double.
"I think we are starting to get some momentum, and I think we can go on a long win streak from here. Pitching carried us at UAAs and a lot of guys stepped up on that end. We have a lot of potential to do big things if a couple bounces go our way, and we put some more complete games together," said Hannon.
In the top of the sixth, Emory added four more runs, including one on an RBI single from Lake, whose hitting streak is the fourth-longest in the program's history.
Iturrey added a run in the top of the seventh and Kahn pushed the lead to 10-4 with a groundout in the top of the eighth. Bitanga closed the game out using just four pitches to get through the ninth inning.
The Eagles fought hard but still fell 9-6 to Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) on Saturday afternoon.
Lake, Maldari, Welch, Kahn, Dillman, Bitanga and freshman Jackson Weeg were among the contributing scorers for the game, keeping Emory close to Case Western regardless of the end result.
Emory's spirits were back up on Sunday, when the team closed-out the 2014 UAAs with a 4-1 win over Brandeis University. The victory put the Eagles at 6-2 at the tournaments, tying them for first place with Case Western Reserve University.
Freshman starting pitcher Hans Hansen held the Brandeis Judges scoreless through the first three innings of the game. Hansen earned the win, pitching into the ninth inning for the first time in his career.
When the Judges began to fight back, Emory held its own, starting with Maldari, who walked, stole second and scored on a throwing error. At that point, Hansen did not allow another run in the game. Peacock hit an RBI double and scored his own run, putting Emory ahead for good. In the seventh, sophomore Chris Slivka drove in an insurance run.
The Eagles will be back out on the diamond on Saturday, March 22 at 2:00pm when they open a three-game series at Chappell Park against DePauw University (Ind.)
- By Nicola Braginsky
