ELON, N.C. – After seeing the Towson Tigers tie the game in the seventh and then load the bases with no outs in the ninth, the Elon University baseball team was able to slam the door shut on a possible comeback as the Phoenix defeated their Colonial Athletic Association foe by a 7-6 score on Saturday afternoon at Latham Park.
CJ Young was 3-for-4 with three doubles and two RBI for Elon (14-21, 6-7). Liam O’Regan drove in three with his fifth home run of the year.
Towson (14-22, 5-3) saw Richie Palacios go 4-for-5 with a homer, two runs scored and two RBI to pace its offensive attack. Chris Henze added two RBI during a 3-for-3 performance.
Danny Crowe (3-0) earned the win after allowing two runs on one hit in an inning of work. Chris Hall garnered his seventh save of the season as he recorded the final six outs and surrendered one run on four hits. Elon starter Michael Elefante gave up three runs on eight hits in 6.0 innings, striking out five.
The loss was charged to Dean Stramara (1-3) who let in one run on two hits and three walks in 3.2 innings out of the Tiger bullpen.
How It Happened: After Towson tied the game at five in the seventh inning, Elon quickly regained its lead when Ryne Ogren, who had doubled and went to third on a sacrifice bunt, scored on Danny Lynch’s sacrifice fly to make it a 6-5 game. The Phoenix would add another in the eighth as Austin Leeney’s sac fly plated Brett Guba.
Towson would threaten in the ninth, loading the bases with three consecutive singles before Hall got Colin Gimblet to ground in to a double play that scored one. Hall then struck out the next hitter to end the game.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first before O’Regan’s three-run homer to right put Elon in front by a 3-2 score in the second. Towson tied it up with a Henze single in the third only to see Elon come right back with two in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, Young doubled home both Lynch and Kyle Jackson.
Notes: Elon has won four consecutive CAA games… The Phoenix won back-to-back one-run games for the first time since May of 2013… Elon improved to 9-2 all-time against Towson.
On Deck: The Phoenix will look to complete the series sweep with a 1:30 p.m. contest on Sunday, April 17.