Senior ace Sebastian Smith went 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up 7 hits while striking out 7 but it was not enough as the Landmark Vikings scored 3 in the bottom half of the 6th to break a 3-3 tie and send the visiting Beaver 9 home with their first league loss of the season.
Coming off a 17 strike out, no-hit bid against Berwick Academy last week, Landmark senior ace Luke Crocker picked up right where he left off allowing just three runs, only two of which were earned, while holding Beaver to 5 hits and striking out 14. Beaver would get to Crocker early as senior captain Alex Jacobs legged out an infield single to begin the game. He would be plated when fellow senior Stephen Phillips roped a double to deep left.
After Landmark answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame, Beaver would score twice in the 3rd. After senior classmates Robbie Shapiro shot a single to the opposite field and Garrett Ekpunobi reached on an error, 2nd year man Alex Gosman sprayed a single the other way to plate the pair. The Vikings would again answer in the bottom half of the frame.
Both pitchers would shut the opposition down in the 4th and 5th until Landmark’s bats awoke to the tune of two singles and a double that equaled 3 runs in the 6th. With the loss Beaver falls to 4-1 in EIL play, 4-2 overall, with Landmark taking over first with a 3-0 league record.
Beaver returns to Chestnut Hill, but ventures across town and out of the Eastern Independent League as they visit The Baseball Prospectus’s #1 ranked team in Massachusetts, Dexter School, on Wednseday April 27 at 4:00.