Goldey-Beacom baseball, now ranked 17th in the nation and first in the East Region, earned the program's 200th victory after winning game two of the doubleheader against Chestnut Hill.
The first game saw the Lightning open up the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly from Jaden Dickerson (New Castle, DE) to score fellow senior Christian Petrillo (New Brunswick, N.J.) and an RBI from freshman Zach Smethers (Nazareth, Pa.) to drive home junior Anthony Charles (Mullica Hill, N.J.). GBC stayed hot in the second inning, starting with a two-run homer from freshman Brent Williams (Woodstown, N.J.), and then a double to left center from Charles and a single from Smethers to take a 6-0 lead.
Chestnut Hill had an eight run second inning to regain the early lead on a sacrifice fly from Phoenix Bowman, a two run single by Wyatt Spinks, back-to-back home runs from Michael Benedetto III and Michael Pascoe, and two singles from Justin Geiger and Kenyon Motley. Three more runs were scored in the third inning for Goldey-Beacom off of errors from Chestnut Hill, the first on a single by Williams and the second and third off of throwing errors. Chestnut Hill added two more runs in the bottom of the third on singles by Nicholas Shiffler and Geiger before a homer by Dylan Broderick gave Chestnut Hill the 11-9 lead.
The Lightning evened the score in the fifth off of a triple to right center by Petrillo that scored senior Matt Benner (Souderton, Pa.) and a single to right center that advanced Petrillo home. Williams added the final run of the game for GBC on a ground out that allowed sophomore Bobby Stewart (Newark, DE) to score.
Chestnut Hill went on to score four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the 15-12 victory.
Goldey-Beacom rallied in game two for a 9-3 victory and the 200th win, all of which have occurred under coach Tom Riley. Dickerson got things started in his first at-bat with a solo home run to give GBC the early 1-0 lead. In the third inning, Dickerson drove in another run off a double to left field before scoring himself on an error.
Chestnut Hill scored its first run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Aiden Myers. The fourth inning saw the Lightning score on a single from Williams to right field before the fifth inning brought in four more runs on a single from senior Dante DiSabatino (Middletown, DE), a fielding error that scored two, and a sacrifice fly from Williams. Chestnut Hill scored two more in the fifth and seventh inning on a double and single from Benedetto.
Senior Mikey Hawbaker (Hagerstown, Md.) improved to 4-2 from the mound, after pitching a complete game by ending the night with seven strikeouts over seven innings.
This victory clinches the team's fifth straight trip to the CACC Tournament, the longest active streak for any GBC sport that has to qualify for the CACC Tournament. The current school record is women's tennis with 12 straight from 2008-09 through 2019-20.
Goldey-Beacom plays the next two games of the series with Chestnut Hill on Saturday, in a doubleheader at Doyle Field in Hockessin, DE at noon.
