Box Score
READING, Pa. – Ty Raubenstine (Elizabethville, Pa./Upper Dauphin Area) hit for the cycle but it was not enough to propel the Susquehanna men's baseball team to a win at Albright as the squad fell 9-7 despite the offensive performance from Raubenstine and a two-out, ninth-inning rally.
Raubenstine hit for the cycle and finished the game 5-for-5 with three RBI and one run scored. Leadoff hitter Jared Musilli (Branchville, N.J./High Point Regional) went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two stolen bases.
Starter Casey Hood (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehanna/IUP lasted the first five innings and gave up four runs, only two earned, while striking out six. Tyler Della Badia (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) gave up three runs in his 1.2 innings of work while Matt Smith (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa./Wyoming Seminary) and Nick Torkildsen (Milford, Pa./Delaware Valley HS) each gave up one run in their relief appearances.
The game remained scoreless until the top of the third inning when the Crusaders were able to plate two runs on a two-run Raubenstine single that plated Musilli and Ken Kayama [Koto-Ku, Japan/Solebury (Pa.)].
SU (12-12) maintained a 2-0 lead before tacking on another run in the top of the sixth when Raubenstine belted a leadoff homer for a 3-0 ballgame.
Unfortunately, Albright (10-14) countered with a five-run bottom half of the sixth on four hits, including a two-run single from Dylan Boll and a RBI double by Jared Ruppert.
The Lions added three more run in the bottom of the next inning after three hits and a SU error that put Susquehanna in an 8-3 hole heading into the eighth.
The Crusaders got back two of those runs in the top half of the next inning thanks to a Nick Kennedy (Brookeville, Md./Good Council) RBI single that plated Musilli. Ethan Rieker (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Twp.) followed with a sac fly to cut the lead to three (8-5).
Albright scored a run off Torkildsen in the eighth to pad their back to four at 9-5.
SU rallied with two outs in the top of the ninth, though, when Musilli singled and eventually reached third on a stolen base and a Lions fielding error. Musilli and Kennedy, who had reached on the error, came around to score on Raubenstine's two-run single but Rieker flied out to end the rally and the game.
The baseball team returns home on Saturday to host Scranton in a doubleheader starting at noon, followed by a 3 p.m. game on Monday afternoon.
