Baseball Takes Rubber Match with Centenary, 3-2
Matt Staback hit his first career homer and had two RBI in the Pacers' 3-2 win over Centenary

Baseball Takes Rubber Match with Centenary, 3-2

Baseball - 4/9/2015 5:29:00 PM

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Scranton, PA - Matt Staback's first career homerun and Thomas Richards' run scoring double helped Marywood University to a 3-2 win over Centenery College in the rubber match of their three game Colonial States Athletic Conference series.  Marywood moves back above .500 in league play with a 4-3 mark after the win and stands at 11-5 overall while they Cyclones slipped to 12-7, 4-4 CSAC.

In a pitcher's dual early, Staback broke the 0-0 stalemate in the bottom of the fourth inning with a blast over the left field fence.  Not only his first collegiate homer, the long ball was his first career homerun as well.

Centenary wasted little time answering though, and in the top of the fifth grabbed a 2-1 lead when second baseman Chris Kiesel hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot that landed in almost the exact same spot as Staback's blast.  

After another set of scoreless at-bats for each team, Marywood took advantage of several miscues to reclaim the lead.  Daniel Hull opened the inning after reaching on an error and moved to second on a Vince Rebar single to left center.  Richards would then double to deep left center to score Hull and tie the game at 2-2, but Rebar was held at third because it looked like Centenary's Ryan Kanner may make a play on the deep fly ball.

With runners on second and third for Staback, the sophomore picked up his second RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly to left which scored Rebar easily.

After a scoreless seventh, Marywood's Justin Haddix picked up his first save of the year by allowing just one hit and striking out three over the final two innings.  Haddix ran into some trouble in the eighth as Centenary got runners on second and third after two singles sandwiched around a strikeout had runners on first and second. The runners advanced on a passed ball, but after intentionally walking the bases loaded Haddix got out of the jam with another strikeout and a flyout to left. 

Starter James Goetz (2-1) earned the win, fanning four and allowing two runs on four hits over seven innings of work.  Justin Young (1-2) took the loss for Centenary after allowing two earned runs (three total) on seven hits over 5.1 innings.  Joe Talnagi was sharp for the Cyclones in relief, striking out six and allowing just one hit over the final 2.1 innings.  

Marywood returns to action tomorrow with a trip to Gwynedd Valley to take on Gwynedd Mercy University in the opening game of their three game series.  
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