One big inning and the combined eight-hit pitching of senior
RJ Hennessey and freshman
Evan Spano added up to a 6-5 win by the Muhlenberg baseball team against ninth-ranked Swarthmore.
The Mules (16-12, 6-4) completed a perfect 3-0 weekend and a season sweep of the defending Centennial Conference champion Garnet. After starting the CC season with three straight losses, Muhlenberg has won six of its last seven and is just a game out of first place with two weeks left in the regular season.
Hennessey
(pictured above) allowed seven hits in seven innings in picking up his 10th career win. He ran into some bad luck in the second, with two infield hits leading to two Swarthmore runs, but otherwise kept in check a Garnet offense that came in with a .349 team batting average and averaging more than 10 runs per game. Hennessey struck out three and finished strong, retiring six of the last seven hitters he faced.
Spano, who threw six innings against Swarthmore when the teams met earlier this week, came in with a 6-4 lead in the top of the eighth and walked the leadoff batter, who eventually scored. Pitching with a one-run lead in the ninth, he struck out the side for his second save of the season.
Muhlenberg trailed 3-0 before erupting for six runs in the bottom of the fourth against a 2018 All-American.
Senior
Jon Capra led off with a single and scored on a single by junior
Billy Brittingham. The Mules had the bases loaded with one out when sophomore
Robert Cappadona hit a comebacker that could have resulted in an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play. But the Garnet pitcher threw low to the plate, all hands were safe, and senior
Chris Grillo and junior
Jack Avallone followed with two-run singles.
Grillo, Capra and Brittingham each had two hits for the Mules. Grillo's two hits moved him into sole possession of sixth place on the program's all-time list with 170 career hits.