A day after losing by 12 runs to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Elon University baseball team returned to Latham Park in need of a midweek win April 10. Facing the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Seahawks, the Phoenix mounted a late comeback only to be defeated once again by a final score of 8-5.
Elon trailed 8-1 in the middle of the eighth inning but began to mount a furious rally in the bottom of the frame. Junior shortstop Antonio Alvarez led off with a double that was followed by sophomore second baseman Wil Leathers being hit by a pitch. With one out, freshman pitcher/designated hitter Danny Lynch blasted his first collegiate home run, a three-run shot to center field.
“It was a hitter’s count and I saw a good fastball in the middle,” Lynch said. “I just took advantage of the pitch they gave me.”
“One swing of the bat was a rally,” Elon head coach Mike Kennedy said. “He got a good pitch to hit and he hit it out. All of a sudden it ties (the UNCW) dugout up a little bit.”
Elon would get four more baserunners after the Lynch home run, yet only one run would score off of UNCW junior pitcher Kelly Secrest, who wiggled out of trouble to earn his third save of the season.
Long before Secrest took the mound, the Seahawks plated five runs off of Elon’s starter, junior Jacob Baker, in only 4.2 innings.
“He threw 92 pitches,” Kennedy said. “When you’re throwing 92 pitches in the fifth inning, you’re not throwing a lot of strikes. It doesn’t take long to run out of gas.”
Baker surrendered his first two runs on only one hit, a struggle that did not sit well with Kennedy. By the time Baker was lifted, he had walked three batters, hit another, and thrown two wild pitches.
The nail in Baker’s coffin was a two-run home run in the fifth by senior right fielder Tyler Molinaro that extended the lead to 5-1 at the time.
While Baker was struggling with his command, Elon was struggling to drive runners home. The Phoenix left 12 runners on base in the game, one where they outhit UNCW 11-10.
“When you have opportunities and you’re not having quality at bats, you’re going to lose some games,” Kennedy said. “We had chances, we gave them too many chances.”
Alvarez was 3 for 5 at the plate, yet was left on base twice.
“If you leave twelve guys on base, you don’t expect to win the game,” Alvarez said. “If we’ve got guys on base with less than one out, we gotta be able to move them over. We gotta be able to drive them in."
Alvarez did take pride in his strong day at the plate, which left him a home run shy of the cycle.
“Leading up to this game, I’ve been struggling a bit,” he said. ”I was seeing good pitches to hit tonight.”
Lynch and junior Ryan Pennell also surrendered runs later the game on the mound, though senior Nate Young worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
Alvarez’s three hits led Elon, who also got two hits from senior right fielder Alex Swim and junior third baseman Chris Bresnahan.
Elon drops to 20-15 overall with the loss and Baker’s personal record falls to 0-1. Wilmington freshman William Shepley picked up the win with 0.2 innings of scoreless relief for the first win of his collegiate career.
Elon will travel to face the University of Louisville of the Southeastern Conference in a three-game non-conference series this weekend. Game one is set for Friday April 12 at 6:00 p.m.