College Baseball

Liberty University 18, Rider University 2

LYNCHBURG, VA?The Broncs lost to Liberty Sunday, as the host Flames compiled 21 hits off of six Rider pitchers. “We never could stop them,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis. “They were certainly better than us today in all phases.” 

Liberty (6-1) scored five runs on an error, a walk, a double, a triple and a pair of singles before making an out, sending nine batter to the plate in the first inning, and never looked back. “Yesterday they had the bases loaded in the first inning and we got out of it with just one run. Today we weren't so fortunate,” Davis said.  “We dug ourselves a hole right out of the gate."

Liberty led 14-0 after five innings, and won the series two games to one. “We'll take that one win against a pretty good club,” Davis said. “We come back north  4-2, and we'll take that. It hurts a little bit because we felt we could have done a little better than that.”

For Rider (4-2), freshman Carlo Petrillo (Norristown, Pa./Kennedy-Kenrick) doubled for his first collegiate hit.” We didn't quit,” Davis said. “Everyone was out there working, it was just one of those days. How we react to this game will be important.  It is only one game. We certainly would have liked to have been more competitive  throughout the game. “

Also for the Broncs freshman Steve Galella (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) singled in the first inning while junior James Hayes (Sunrise, Fla./Piper) and junior Sean Olson (Vineland, N.J./St. Augustine Prep) also collected hits. “We couldn't really put anything together offensively.  We couldn't get anything going,” Davis said. 

Rider travels to the University of Delaware Wednesday for a 2:30 contest. “Delaware is very good,” Davis said. “We're not taking a step down after Liberty. This will be another test for us. We're looking forward to it.”

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