Crowe’s Walk-Off Single Sends Elon Baseball to Sweep of James Madison

ELON, N.C. – For the second time on the weekend, the Elon baseball team earned a walk-off, extra-inning victory as the Phoenix began its tenure as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association with a three-game sweep of James Madison with an 8-7, 13-inning victory on Sunday afternoon.

Elon (11-11, 3-0 CAA) and JMU (9-11, 0-3) found themselves tied at seven following nine innings of play. The score was still the same going to the last of the 13th inning when the Phoenix loaded the bases with two walks and a single. With one away, Phoenix skipper looked to outfielder turned pitcher Danny Crowe to pinch-hit. Crowe, who had not had a plate appearance all season, took the first two pitches from Dukes hurler Colton Harlow for balls before turning on the third pitch he saw. Crowe laced the pitch just inside the third base bag for a walk-off single.

Mike Krill (1-0) picked up his first victory of the season after throwing an inning and a third of scoreless ball. That came after John Antonelli allowed two hits and no runs in three innings of work. Elon starter Lucas Bakkerposted a quality start, giving up three runs on six hits in seven innings.

The loss went to Harlow (0-1) who gave up just two hits in five innings out of the Dukes’ bullpen. Elon got to JMU starter Derek Shifflett for five runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings.

JMU (9-11, 0-3) took an early 1-0 lead in the second only to see Chris King sent an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left to begin the last of the inning to tie the game. With Ryan Cooper at first following a two-out single in the bottom of the third, King connected on a 2-0 offering for his second dinger of the game to put the Phoenix in front 8-7. It was the first two-homer game of King’s career.

Elon extended its advantage to 6-1 in the fifth. With runners on the corners, King lifted a sacrifice fly to left-center to earn his fourth RBI of the afternoon. Cooper would later race home from third on a passed ball before James Venuto would single home a final run.

After the Dukes scored a pair in the seventh and both teams plated one in the eighth, Elon held a 7-4 lead going to the ninth. After a walk began the inning, Jake Stalzer got a comebacker to the mound, but the throw to second was misplayed, allowing JMU to have two runners on and no outs. With runners on the corners and one out, pinch-hitter Michael Sciorra hit the first pitch he saw for a double down the leftfield line to make it 7-5. A ground out scored the sixth JMU run and left a runner on second before Ky Parrott looped a single to right-center to tie the game at seven.

Four Phoenix hitters had multi-hit games – Venuto (3-for-4), Cooper (2-for-6), King (2-for-5) and Andy Moore(2-for-3).

Elon will play its next four on the road, beginning with a 6 p.m. game at North Carolina State on Tuesday, March 24.