Rosemont Walks Off With Victory Over Brandywine

ROSEMONT, Pa. – Penn State Brandywine overcame a six-run deficit to hold a lead entering the bottom of the ninth inning, but Rosemont took advantage of two Brandywine errors to walk off with a 10-9 victory during the Lions' baseball regular-season finale on Monday.

Brandywine led 9-8 in the ninth, but consecutive errors put runners on first and third with no outs and David McKinney and Nicholas Skoufalos delivered run-scoring singles to lift the Ravens to a one-run victory.

The Lions spotted Rosemont a 6-0 edge through one inning before rallying with nine of the game's next 11 runs.

Sam Benvignati (Aston, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) put Brandywine on the board with an RBI single in the second and added a two-run double two frames later to make the score 6-3. Toby Skeans (Stevensville, Md./Kent Island) followed with a base hit that plated Benvignati, bringing the Lions within two after four innings.

Ryan Snyder (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) walked and scored on Mike DeGirolamo's (Frederick, Md./Frederick) single in the fifth, but Rosemont answered with an unearned run during the bottom of the frame. The Ravens plated another unearned run in the seventh to make the count 8-5.

Brandywine rallied to take the lead following a four-run eighth inning. DeGirolamo and Owen Lawton (Glenmoore, Pa./Downingtown East) recorded back-to-back singles to begin the frame and both scored on a base hit from Ryan Brown (Bensalem, Pa./Bensalem). Three batters later, Max Tavarez (Woodbridge, N.J./Woodbridge) pushed Brown across the plate with a sacrifice fly. Jimmy Carey (Springfield, Pa./Bonner-Prendie) scored via wild pitch to put the Lions on top.

DeGirolamo, Lawton, Benvignati, Brown and Skeans all recorded two hits to account for Brandywine's 10 knocks. Brown also stole a base and scored three times, while Benvignati produced a team-high three RBI.

Justin Bray (Christiana, Pa./Octorara) struck out three and limited the Ravens to one hit and two unearned runs in 6.2 innings of relief, while Campbell Smith (Cape Coral, Fla./Cape Coral) fanned one during the eighth inning. Ty Coccia (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) yielded two ninth-inning singles and suffered the loss.

Brandywine (22-13, 15-5 PSUAC) will face Penn State York Saturday at Blue Mountain High School in a PSUAC Tournament elimination game beginning at 11:00 AM.