MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. -- Graduate student
Antonio Rossillo (Warrington, Pa./Archbishop Wood) recorded his 100th career hit on a sixth inning double but Mount Olive scored six unanswered runs to break a 2-2 tie and go on to an 11-4 victory over the Kutztown University baseball team in the finale of a three-game season-opening series Sunday afternoon.
Jimmy Kerley (Indian Trail, N.C./Sun Valley) and
Jason Wolff (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) each had two hits and
Dominic Proietto (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) knocked in two runs for the Golden Bears (1-2).
Mount Olive (5-2) struck for two runs in the bottom of the first on Landon Choboy's one-out double to right.
The Bears' first time up against UMO starter Carson Gipson proved fruitless with a Wolff walk accounting for KU's only baserunner in the first three innings. That changed in the fourth when the Kutztown bats started to sing.
Following a Rossillo hit by pitch, Kerley and Wolff delivered consecutive singles to load the bases. Proietto brought in a pair with a single to third to tie the game at two. KU was unable to tack on additional runs with the Trojans getting out of the inning courtesy of a double play.
Mount Olive regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out single from Aldan Cottle that plated Mike Kenny. Cottle was 3-for-4 with a triple, three RBIs and three runs scored.
Gordan Pihl hit a solo homer in the sixth and added a two-run single in a four-run seventh that pushed UMO's lead to 8-2.
Kutztown got as close as 8-4 in the eighth on RBI singles from Kerley and Wolff but Cottle's two-run triple and a Choboy RBI groundout in the bottom of the inning put the game out of reach.
Gipson allowed two runs on four hits and struck out three over six solid innings to earn the victory. KU starter
Paul Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) showed well against the Trojans, who are receiving votes in the latest NCBWA National Poll, yielding three runs on six hits and striking out three in defeat.
Kutztown will return to North Carolina next weekend when it faces Clarion (Friday), Goldey-Beacom (Saturday) and Frostburg State (Sunday) at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary.
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