GEORGETOWN, Texas — Southwestern baseball started strong and faded late, surrendering six unanswered runs over the final three innings in a 7-3 loss to the Susquehanna River Hawks.
Starting pitcher Travis Harvey opened the game on fire, retiring three of Susquehanna's first four batters, striking out two. Southwestern's all-region pitcher showed his combination of blow-by heat and location against Adam Schreck, climbing the ladder with three consecutive pitches to strike him out swinging.
Offensively, Southwestern head baseball coach JC Bunch made a few tweaks to the lineup that paid immediate dividends. Maxwell Mims moved from the No. 2 spot to leadoff hitter, opening the bottom of the first with a single up the middle.
Ted Lobkowicz, moving one spot down in the lineup, laid down a perfectly-placed bunt down the third-base line for the infield single.
Christian Melillo scored them both on a stand-up, RBI triple to left-center. Preston Witt followed with an RBI, scoring Melillo on a groundout to second to give Southwestern a 3-0 lead.
Harvey got into a late jam in the second inning. Susquehanna's Evan Knapp opened the inning with a walk, then Harvey sat Chris Corrado and Michael Mancuso down swinging. The Pirates appeared set to retire the side, but Harvey lost consecutive hitters after getting ahead in the count early, surrendering a two-strike single to Lance Book, followed by a two-strike walk to Michael Biuso to load the bases.
Southwestern's ace showed his composure, going right at Tyler Hmielewski and painting the corner on a masterpiece beautifully framed by freshman catcher Christian Matthews on a full count to get out of the inning unscathed.
Susquehanna broke through against Harvey in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of quality baserunning from Corrado. After reaching on a leadoff walk, Corrado stole second to put himself in scoring position, setting up Biuso's RBI single to left field to pull the River Hawks to within 3-1 before Harvey got out of the inning.
Harvey and Matthews showcased their arm strength on the same play in the top of the fifth inning, with Harvey blowing a fastball past Knapp for the strikeout and Matthews throwing out J.P. Yore trying to steal second to end the inning.
In the sixth, Adam Stuck replaced Susquehanna starting pitcher Teagan Duffie and retired the side in order. The River Hawks tied the game in the top of the seventh inning. Harvey walked Hmielewski and hit Kris Morrow, ending his afternoon. Trey Schwarz replaced Harvey and went to work featuring his slider, striking out two before Knapp hit an RBI single to left field, scoring Hmielewski.
Schwarz walked Corrado to load the bases, ending his game with J.J. Slack taking over in relief. A wild pitch scored Morrow, tying the game before Slack and Southwestern got out of the inning.
Harvey finished with nine strikeouts and seven walks while allowing three hits with three runs credited against him.
Ryan Corbett took the mound for Southwestern to start the eighth inning, and Book welcomed him with a leadoff single to right field. After Biuso grounded out to first, moving Corbett into scoring position, Sean McCulloch pinch hit for Hmielewski and hit an RBI single through the left side to give Susquehanna the lead.
Southwestern put two on with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning but left both runners stranded with a pop-up to first base to end the inning.
Things unraveled for the Pirates in the top of the ninth. Knapp hit a leadoff double to center field, and Corrado bunted for an infield single that turned into an extra-base and a score on a throwing error by Matthews.
Corrado advanced to third on a passed ball, and Veit walked, then stole second, placing runners on second and third. A passed ball scored Corrado, and then a wild pitch brought in Veight to give the River Hawks the 7-3 lead.
Mims sparked the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth with a one-out double to left-center, but it didn't ignite into anything with Lobkowicz grounding out and Melillo going down swinging to end the game.
Southwestern drops to 2-4 with the loss. The Pirates and River Hawks will finish their series tomorrow with the first pitch at 11:00 a.m.