PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – The Villanova baseball team fell to the Western Michigan Broncos 11-2 on a cloudy and windy Tuesday afternoon.
Nick Lorusso went two for three for the Wildcats. It was his second game in a row with multiple hits and fourth overall for the season.
JP Radvany hit his second double of the season and has hit a double in back to back games.
Western Michigan got on the board in the bottom of the first with a RBI single to center field scoring their runner on second. A couple batters later, the Broncos hit a RBI single to score the runner on third. Then with two outs and runners on first and second, Western Michigan hit a double down the left field line scoring the runner on second to increase their lead to 3-0.
Jake Esp got the start for Villanova and after that and only faced seven batters in the next two innings. He pitched 3.1 innings and had two strikeouts.
Villanova started the top of the fourth with a leadoff single to center field by Dylan McNary. He would then advance to third after a double the left field line by JP Radvany. With one out and runners on second and third, Pat O'Neil used a sac bunt to score McNary from third to make it a two-run game.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Broncos had runners on the corners with one out and then hit a single through the left side to make it 4-1. Western Michigan then had back to back singles to scoring two more runs making it 6-1. The next batter was walked and the bases were loaded for the Broncos. A single through the left side scored two more runs. With runners on second and third, WMU hit a RBI single to make it 9-1.
Western Michigan in the bottom of the sixth had a runner on first with two outs and the Broncos hit a double to deep center field scoring the runner on first to lead 10-1.
The Broncos would score again in the bottom of the eighth with a double to right center field scoring their runner on second.
In the top of the ninth the Wildcats started the inning with a leadoff walk for Ryan Toohers, who would then advance to second after a single by O'Neil. Timothy Lilly singled to center field to load the bases for the Wildcats. A wild pitch by the Broncos would advance all the runners and scored Toohers from third. The Broncos would then get the final out and win the game 11-2.
Villanova returns to action tomorrow afternoon against Northeastern with first pitch scheduled for 4:00 p.m. This will be the Wildcats final game in Port Charlotte before heading to Clearwater.
