Box Score

DALLAS, Pa. – The Immaculata baseball team (22-8) went on the road for a mid-week non-conference game at Misericordia (25-12) hoping to boost their resume, and they took an early lead, but the Cougars offense was too much to contain in a 12-5 loss.
 
Senior left fielder Matt Simon (2 3B, RBI) and junior designated hitter Justin Dempsey (2B, RBI) each had two hits in the loss.
 
Senior shortstop Ryan Ficca (1-for-4, R) started the IU rally in the first with a single up the middle and quickly score on an RBI double by Dempsey to give the Macs a 1-0 lead.  The Cougars tied it in the bottom of the inning against junior starter Ryan Joyce, but the Macs bounced back with three in the second.
 
Senior catcher Dom Ficca (1-for-2, 2 R, 2 HBP) was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to second on a wild pitch before an RBI single off the bat of sophomore third baseman Kyle Hannon (1-for-3, R, 2 RBI) made it 2-1 IU.  Hannon would score later on a double steal with junior second baseman Pat Devenney, and Devenney scored on Simon's RBI triple to make it 4-1 Macs.
 
The Cougars got two more off Joyce in the bottom of the second, and then took the lead for good with two against freshman Timmy Newell in the third.  They continued to tack on runs with two in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth to grow their lead to 10-4.
 
The Macs scored one in the eighth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Hannon to score Dom Ficca, but that would be the last offense for IU.
 
Misericordia added two more in the eighth against senior Adam Wheatley to get to the final of 12-5.
 
The Macs will now shift all of their focus to the crucial series against Keystone where the winner gets the top seed in the CSAC Tournament.  The first game will be on Thursday at 3 p.m. at the IU Baseball Field.