In Madison, New Jersey on the campus of Drew University, the skies threatened rain, but the gods allowed Drew Baseball to fight it out with the Scranton University Royals in front of brave crowd on a cold afternoon.
Coming into Sunday afternoon's matchup at Drew University, the home team had lost five straight games. However, there was no time to rest because the Scranton Royals were coming to Doc Young Field and ready for a Landmark Conference battle in Madison, New Jersey. Drew's manager, Brian Elbery, who joined Drew before the season after 12 years with the County College of Morris (CCM), handed the ball to his senior flamethrower Teddy Hoxie to try and stop the Scranton Royals from sweeping their three-game series against the hometown Rangers.
The Opening Frames from Doc Young Field
Scranton's first batter went down without a whimper but then the second hitter in the Royals order, Connor Harding hit a home run over the right field wall to give the visitors an early one-nothing lead. For the left-handed Harding from the Pennsylvanian college, this home run was a milestone because it was the graduate students 100th career run-batted-in (RBI). The slugger from western New York state became the ninth player in Scranton University baseball history to amass 100 Runs-batted-in during a career.
Despite surrendering an early solo-blast, Rangers starter Hoxie settle down from there. Drew University's 230-pound starter hit a batter in the second, but closed out the top half of the first inning by inducing two groundouts. Shortstop Cole Bosch ran in and fielded a slow grounder, which he threw on the run to first baseman Mike Myers, from Woodcliff township, to end the Royals' second half-inning at the dish.
In the bottom half of the second inning at Doc Young field, the home team came out swinging. This aggressive and controlled mindset shone through with lead-off hitter; Joey Del Sol’s deep fly-out to center field. Then first baseman who batted sixth, Matt Myers took Scranton’s Thomas Plunkett’s offering into left field for a hard single, but this was all that would come of the inning. Drew's number-nine hitter, a freshman named Dallas Lorenzetti flew out to end the second inning while the home fans wondered when their team would put a crooked number on the scoreboard above the ivy wall.
The Action Picks up Steam
Drew University's Teddy Hoxie, who comes from California, took the mound for the start of the third inning. The six-foot-three senior struck out the first two Royals batsmen before walking Harding, who had hurt Hoxie with the first-inning home run. The third hitter in the Royals order hit a weak grounder and that ended the top half of the third inning with the score remaining tied at 1-1.
In the bottom half of the third inning, Drew Baseball committed to making Scranton’s starter, Plunkett work harder and take better at-bats.
Drew shortstop, Diaz led off the inning with a walk, putting good wheels on first base. Then, the catcher K.J. Hallgren singled to center field and his hit was bobbled. This allowed Drew’s baserunner to turn the corner at second base and slide into third, unscathed. Now, Drew had their first rally with runners on first and third and no outs and up stepped Drew's number-three hitter from Fairlawn, New Jersey named Cole Bosch. Bosch hit a hard ground ball to third base that was fielded just left of the base. Scranton’s third baseman decided to throw Drew's runner out at second base, which allowed Diaz to cross home plate and tie the game at one. Then, in an awful turn of events, the Drew baserunner, Bosch was picked off and went down as the second out in the bottom of the third. Then, Rangers clean-up hitter, Jake Welsh stepped up with the ability to change the game but flied out to end the inning.
Nevertheless, now starter Teddy Hoxie had been given a run and took the mound feeling like Drew had a shot. The inning started with a walk to Taylor Kirsten, but when the Scranton base-runner tried to steal, Drew’s catcher, Hallgren threw the runner out at second for the third time this season, tying him for second-place among Landmark conference catchers in 2022.
This helped Hoxie put the Royals to bed in the fourth inning which kept momentum with the home team. However, the Rangers bats were unable to produce any runs for the next three innings. While Hoxie held serve, with two strikeouts and retiring the sides in order twice in a row. Before the bottom of the sixth began, Scranton’s manager relieved the starter and brought in freshman relief pitcher, Kevin Keil who comes from Egg Harbor township.
Through the Fire and Flames
When the seventh inning rolled around, Drew’s starter continued to compete hard. The senior flamethrower had fanned six batters at that point but things would take a turn for the worse in the seventh. In the top of the seventh, Hoxie got the first out but, then a Scranton batter singled into right-center field and made it to second base on a fielding error.
Hoxie was embroiled in a long at-bat with the seventh batter who was able to single through the hole between third and short, which scored the runner from second and gave the visitors a 3-1 lead. Hoxie then hit the Royals batsman hitting eight in their order, to put runners at first and second with one out. The manager, Brian Elbery then walked to the mound and signaled for a reliever to take the starter out of the game after six and a third innings pitched.
Photo courtesy of Drew University Athletics.
The reliever came in and had trouble with control. Walking the first batter to load the bases and giving a free-pass to Scranton’s lead-off hitter to walk in the fourth run. Drew’s manager Brian Elbery did not want his team to fall too far behind so he relieved DeGiglio for LaVelle.
The bags were juiced for the third Rangers hurler of the game. Luckily, Lavelle had more control than the pitcher he replaced. He fell behind the first batter but then got Scranton to hit a ground ball. The Drew infielder threw to first to get the second out of the inning and allowed the sixth run to cross the plate. Lavelle then fanned the next batter and ended what turned out to be a five run inning for the visitors.
Drew came out guns blazing in the bottom half of the seventh inning. Joey Del Sol led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a base-hit from Ronny Jones, the center efielder. This knocked Keil out of the game and he was replaced by George Sengos, of Washington, New Jersey. Scranton’s reliever came up clutch, getting Myers to fly out deep to center field and Lorenzetti to strikeout swinging. The Drew catcher, K.J. Hallgren stepped up to the plate with two runners on and two outs. To the dismay of the brave home crowd braving the cold and wind, Hallgren flew out to right field to end what ended up as Drew’s last rally of the game.
Scranton was able to keep Drew off the scoreboard for the remaining two innings, while stretching it’s lead by two and hand Drew their sixth-straight loss. With the loss Drew remains last place in the conference, while Scranton solidified their standing in third
The Rangers were able to go toe-to-toe with the third-place team in the Landmark Conference for six innings, but it all fell apart in the seventh. After the game, the manager Brian Elbery discussed how his team fought in the first six innings of this gray afternoon.
"Our whole team is sort of in that same boat where, we’re making a lot of progress but it seems to be that one inning that gets away from us. We came out fairly well but I could go for a few more timely hits, for sure, setting the table and not cashing guys in has been a recurring theme for us. It’s been a bit of a struggle but we’re making progress."
One of the things all teams need to learn is how to be more confident in their abilities to handle whatever situation they may find themselves in. In baseball, hitting with runners in scoring position is a stat that all good teams like the New York Yankees that were led by captain Derek Jeter from 1996-2014 did very well. This was something that Coach Elbery harped on after the game.
"A big part of it is just building confidence and not letting one bad inning defeat us mentally. Being more confident and not letting the first sign of anything negative take us out of our game. This is a defending conference champ here so to be able to see that for six innings we’re one-one with them is a sign that we’re close and now it’s time to get over that hump."
Drew Baseball's performance fell apart from the seventh inning on but for the first six innings the Rangers went toe-to-toe with one of reigning Landmark conference champs who are also a third-place team this season. One of the reasons why Drew was able to hold their nerve early on was Teddy Hoxie's pitching in the first six innings. By throwing six and a third innings today, the senior now has made six quality starts this season but only has one win to show for it. Here is what Drew's starting pitcher said about the weather as well as his pitching performance.
"I'm used to it at this point, I've thrown in the snow against FDU and when it was 85 degrees in Florida so I'm ready for anything. Today was about staying on top of hitters, not letting them get ahead in the count and having control of my stuff. I had good control of my slider until the seventh inning when I hit their kid-- that was why I hit him-- and things got away from us, but we have a good group here, a really strong freshman and sophomore class... They're going to have a bright future here."
Drew's next game will take place at home on Tuesday against Ramapo College. The Rangers will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak and hopefully the next man who takes the hill takes a page out of Teddy Hoxie's playbook two days from now.
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