KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Villanova baseball team defeated the Central Michigan Chippewas 13-7 to conclude their Spring Break Florida trip. Four Wildcats had two or more hits. Ryan Toohers and Doug deMarrais both hit solo home runs.
Starting on the mound for Villanova was Jimmy Kingsbury who pitched five and a third innings allowing four runs on 10 hits while striking out five Chippewas. He improved to 2-1 on the season.
Villanova got on the board in the bottom of the second with a solo home run to left field by Toohers. His first home run of the year. Timothy Lilly had a 10 pitch at bat that resulted in a walk. Then Pat O'Neil laid down on a bunt and reached first after an error by the third baseman and Lilly advanced to third. deMarrais scored Lilly with sacrifice bunt. Sam Margulis hit a single to centerfield and scored O'Neill. Dylan McNary hit a double to right center field scoring Margulis from first to give the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.
Central Michigan started the top of the third with a leadoff double to right center field. Warren then singled through the right and scored their runner on second to make it 4-1. The next batter hit a RBI triple to right center and then scored after a throwing error by McNary to make it 4-3.
The Wildcats increased their lead in the bottom of the fourth. O'Neil got the inning started off with a double to left center field. John Heilenbach singled through the right side and O'Neil moved to third. deMarrais reached first on fielder's choice sacrifice bunt. McNary was hit by a pitch and the bases were loaded. Chris Rotondo singled through the right side to score Heilenbach from third. JP Radvany doubled to left field to score two Wildcats runs. Toohers hit a sacrifice fly to deep right field to score Rotondo. The Chippewas would then throw a wild pitch and Radvany would cross home plate to give Villanova a 10-3 lead.
In the top of the fifth, the Chippewas hit a double down the right field line and then hit a single to put runners on the corner with no outs. Another single by CMU would score the runner from third to make it 10-4 VU. Then with one out and runners on the corners, the Chippewas grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
Villanova began the bottom of the fifth, O'Neil started the inning with a leadoff single then advanced to third after a single by Heilenbach. deMarrais laid down his third sacrifice bunt of the game to score O'Neil to give the Wildcats 11-4 lead. After stealing third Heilenbach scored after a single by McNary to make it 12-4 VU.
Central Michigan would score one run in the top of the sixth and Villanova got out of the inning after CMU grounding into a 5-4-3 double play.
deMarrais led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to left field to give the Wildcats a 13-5 lead.
In the top of the eighth, the Chippewas had runners on second and third with one out. A sacrifice fly would score the runner on third to make it 13-6 VU. A Central Michigan single to right field would score another run 13-7 VU.
The Chippewas went down in order in the top of the ninth and Villanova won 13-7.
Villanova's next game is on Tuesday against Navy. The game is the Wildcats home opener with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
