AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Ursinus College baseball team walked off Pitt-Greensburg, then the Bears ran them over.
Alex Mumme delivered the game-winning solo homer to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning of a 3-2 victory in Friday's spring break opener, just the appetizer for a historic performance in the nightcap. Ursinus put up 13 runs in the third inning – the second-highest total in program history – on the way to a 22-0 rout and a scintillating sweep in the Sunshine State.
Game 1: Ursinus 3, Pitt-Greensburg 2 (8)
The opener was a pitchers' duel from the jump as Brady Antolick matched Matt Mish pitch for pitch, neither giving any quarter. The Bears' rookie struck out nine in his first career start, including the side in the fifth to work around a runner on third and only one out.
The Bobcats finally broke a scoreless deadlock in the sixth when Jace Cappellini hit a solo home run with two outs. The next batter followed with a walk to chase Antolick, with Casey Fitzsimmons coming on to record the final out of the frame.
Ursinus equalized immediately, with Mumme drawing a leadoff walk before Jake Supran and Connor Barrett reached on consecutive bunt singles to load the bases with nobody out. Tom Jacobs then flied into a double play as Supran was thrown out at third, limiting the rally to just a single run.
Pitt-Greensburg took the lead back in the top of the seventh, only for the Bears to answer right back in their last at-bat. Mike Stanziale singled to lead off the bottom half, went to second on a wild pitch, and took third on a sacrifice by Eric Gross before coming home with the tying run on Dom Fiorentino's sacrifice fly.
Fitzsimmons worked a 1-2-3 top of the eighth before Mumme crushed his first career walk-off homer to left-center field to end it.
Antolick was sensational, allowing just five hits and the one run over 5.2 innings. He struck out nine and walked four. Fitzsimmons allowed one run and one hit while recording seven outs for his first career win.
Mumme scored twice, and the home run was his second in as many games.
Game 2: Ursinus 22, Pitt-Greensburg 0
The Bears wasted little time jumping out to a big lead in the nightcap, capitalizing on an error by the Bobcats to put up four runs in the second. Jerry Scavone reached on a fielding miscue, and three batters later Gross hit an RBI double down the left-field line. With two outs, Peiffer delivered a bases-clearing triple down the line in right.
Ursinus blew it wide pen in the third. With a run already in, Kyle Supran singled through the right side to score Scavone and kick-start a sequence of four consecutive base hits that ultimately chased the Greensburg starter. Fiorentino sent an RBI single through the right side, and Mumme's RBI double to the gap in left center stretched the lead to 8-0.
The Bobcats reliever's first pitch was wild, allowing Fiorentino to come home. After a walk to Peiffer, Barrett plated Mumme with a double, and Scavone made it 12-0 with a two-run double of his own. Supran added another RBI single and Gross was hit by a pitch to force in another run. Fiorentino tacked on a two-run single before Peiffer's foul-out finally snapped a streak of 14 consecutive Bears to reach base. Solomon Griffith punched an RBI single down the right-field line in his first career at-bat to make it 17-0.
By the time the dust settled, the Bears had scored 13 runs on 11 hits and batted around twice. The 13 runs have been exceeded in the record books only by a 19-run explosion in a 25-14 win over Arcadia in 2014.
Matteo Falcone's first career hit was a two-run double in the fourth, and Jacob Feigel launched his first career home run in the fifth to extend the Ursinus lead to 20-0. Griffith notched his first career round-tripper with a two-run shot in the sixth.
Eleven Bears had a hit in the nightcap, and the same number scored a run – including all nine starters. Seven players produced multiple RBI, and seven had at least two hits. Supran (3-for-4, three runs, two RBI) and Gross (2-for-2, four runs, two RBI) did the most damage, combining for seven runs scored and four RBI, while Fiorentino, Peiffer, and Griffith each drove in three runs.
Griffith, Falcone, and Tom Snipes – who doubled in the seventh – all recorded their first career hits.
James Schuld turned in a strong effort in his first start, giving up just one hit and striking out six in four innings. Jon Moldoff – the Bears' regular first baseman – allowed one hit in two shutout frames in his pitching debut, and David Kratz induced a double play in a scoreless seventh in his Bears debut.
Up Next
The Bears take on Beloit and Illinois Wesleyan tomorrow at Lake Myrtle Park.