Baseball Drew Athletic Communications

Drew Baseball Upsets Top-Seeded Wilkes in Opening Round of Landmark Championships

EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. – Junior second baseman Griffin Shenman singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning, then snagged a line drive to start a game-ending double play, and the Drew University baseball team upset top-seeded Wilkes University on the road, winning a 7-6 thriller on Tuesday in the opening round of the Landmark Conference Championship tournament.

The remainder of the tournament will be held at Penn Medicine Park in Lancaster, Pa., where the fifth-seeded Rangers (25-15) will face second-seeded Susquehanna University in the winner's bracket on Friday at 11 a.m.

The win marked Drew's first postseason victory since a 10-9 triumph over Moravian University in the 2012 Landmark Conference championship game.

In a topsy-turvy game that featured three lead changes, each team smacked 15 hits.

For Drew, senior Nick Bisaccia finished 4-for-5 and missed the cycle by a home run, ripping a double and a triple to go with three RBIs. Sophomore Frank Master finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored, and he also reached the career 100-hit milestone with an infield single in the first inning. In addition, freshman Nick Donofrio went 2-for-4 with a double while Shenman finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

On the mound, freshman Jayce Thoroughman (4-2) fired 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, scattering six hits and a pair of walks while striking out four to earn the win.

With the game tied 6-6 heading into the seventh, Donofrio led off with a double, and he scored three batters later when Shenman drilled a 3-1 pitch into right-center field for what held up as the game-winning hit off reliever Zachary Lloyd (5-2), who had tossed 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief entering the inning.

The Colonels (24-17) loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, when pinch-hitter Jack Smale drilled a liner at Shenman, who was able to flip the ball with his glove to freshman shortstop Elijah Frix at second for the game-clinching out.

Drew jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. On his milestone hit, Master reached second on a throwing error. Bisaccia then laid down a bunt that was thrown away by starting pitcher AJ Levandoski, allowing Master to score.

Wilkes came back with three runs on three hits and two walks in the bottom of the inning versus junior starter Tyler Bell. But Drew answered with five in the top of the second to go up 6-3.

Juniors Aiden Mitchell and Tyler Giordano and sophomore Anthony Vallaro roped three straight singles to load the bases with one out before Shenman drew a walk to push across a run. Master followed up with an RBI single before Bisaccia smashed a two-run triple into centerfield to put the Rangers up 5-3. Sophomore Zach Maxwell drove in the final run of the inning with an infield single that chased Levandoski after just 1 2/3 innings.

The Colonels went back in front with a three-run, four-hit fifth, but that's when Thoroughman was summoned out of the pen. After giving up an infield single and a walk, he escaped with a groundout.

Thoroughman, making just his second relief appearance of the season and his first since opening day on Feb. 13, went on to blank the Colonels the rest of the way. He stranded a runner at third in the sixth and left a runner on second in the eighth before facing his biggest test in the ninth. Tyler Uram led off with a single and was bunted to second before pinch-hitter Gannon Decker singled to put runners on the corners. Jake Miller was intentionally walked to load the bases before the game-ending DP.

Friday's game will mark the sixth time in the Ranges' last eight postseason games that they will face Susquehanna, dating back to the 2016 season.