Game 1 Box Score Game 2 Box Score
SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley College baseball team opened its 2003 Commonwealth Conference schedule with a pair of convincing wins over Susquehanna University on Sunday afternoon at Bollinger Field.
LVC (6-2, 2-0 CC), playing for the first time since March 13 in the team's final game of its Spring Break Trip in Florida, rapped out a season-high 17 hits in a 9-0 win in the opener, then played an error-less game in the nightcap, a 5-1 Flying Dutchmen victory.
Senior right-hander Dallas Noll (Myerstown, Pa./ELCO) (1-0) twirled a six-hit shutout in game one before sophomore righty Robert Nordall (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon) (2-0) followed up with a four-hit complete game victory.
Senior Mark Schauren (Columbia, Pa./Columbia) and sophomore Ronald Weaver (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) paced the Valley's offensive attack. Schauren hit 4-for-6 with a double, home run and four RBIs for the twinbill while Weaver was 5-for-7 with three infield hits.
Every LVC starter hit safely for the doubleheader. The Dutchmen blasted their first three home runs of the season in the two games.
Susquehanna fell to 3-5 and 0-2 in conference play.
In the opener, the Dutchmen carried a 4-0 lead into the top of the sixth before blowing the game open with a five-run, seven-hit inning.
The Valley gave Noll an early 3-0 cushion after scoring once in the first and twice in the second. Schauren drove in junior Chris Hotchkiss (Chantilly, Va./Chantilly), who led off the game with a walk, with a two-out single in the first. Sophomore Jason Luis (Pemberton, N.J./Pemberton Township) knocked home a pair with a double to right an inning later.
Schauren made it 4-0 when he jacked a towering solo home run to right to lead off the fifth. The homer was LVC's first of the season.
With one out in the sixth, senior Joe Zielke (Media, Pa./Penncrest), Schauren, senior Tim Rink (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock) and senior Mike Worthington (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Daupin) delivered consecutive run-scoring hits as five Dutchmen crossed the plate. Zielke scored Hotchkiss with a single to right, prompting a Susquehanna pitching change. Schauren greeted the new Crusader hurler with a double to left, plating sophomore Scott Montgomery (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township).
Worthington capped the inning with his first home run of the season, a two-run blast to left and his first dinger since his sophomore season.
Noll struck out five for the game and walked just two. Schauren was a perfect 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs while Worthington went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. Weaver also recorded a 3-for-4 day at the dish while Hotchkiss and Montgomery belted a pair of hits apiece.
Lebanon Valley scored all of its runs in two innings in the nightcap. With two outs and the bases empty, the Dutchmen scored three times on four hits in the third to erase a 1-0 deficit and take the lead for good. Schauren walked with the bases loaded, allowing Hotchkiss to score, before Rink drilled a single to left, driving in Zielke and Montgomery.
In the sixth Rink picked up where he left off, cracking a lead-off single. Two batters later, junior Jeff Grieger (Riegelsville, Pa./Wilson) smacked his first career homer, a rising liner to right.
Nordall whiffed six and walked just two in his second straight complete game. In 14 innings pitched this season, he has allowed just seven hits.
Rink finished 2-for-2 in the nightcap while Weaver was 2-for-3.
Lebanon Valley returns to action on Monday when it travels to Elizabethtown College in a rescheduled Commonwealth Conference tilt. After traveling to Penn State-Altoona for a non-conference doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the Flying Dutchmen are scheduled to play their home-opener on Thursday in a Commonwealth clash against Albright, starting at 3 p.m.
[Photo - Senior first baseman Mark Schauren, who was 4-for-6 with a double, home run and four RBIs in LVC's sweep over Susquehanna]
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