PHOENIXVILLE, PA- The Valley Forge Christian College baseball team played host to St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, Thursday, April 17, for a doubleheader matchup.  The Patriots showed signs of offensive improvement, jumping out to the early lead in game one and staying neck and neck in game two before yielding to the Bears by the end of both matches.  

Patriots' pitcher Jonathan Manning set the stage for an exciting game, going three-up, three-down at the top of the first inning.  Following their leader, the Patriots offense hit a small rhythm, recording four runs.  With bases loaded, Bryce Koch singled into left field before a frantic fielding error allowed him to round to third base, bringing in all three runners.  Koch finally crossed home after Jonathan Hadinger grounded out to shortstop.  The Bears brought the inning to a close, striking out the next batter, and looked to even the score as they prepared to bat.

The Bears quickly answered the Patriots runs, scoring eight of their own off of three errors before the inning came to a rest with three strikeouts from pitcher Jonathan Manning.  Trailing by four and two outs against them, the Patriots recorded two more runs at the bottom of the second inning.  Manning started the run with a single into center field, followed by a solid hit from Matt McKenzie to advance to second.  A wild throw from third base allowed McKenzie to reach second and bring Manning to third base.  A solid hit from James Comenzo brought both Manning and McKenzie home to trail the Bears by just two, 6-8, before Jared Boothman flied out to center field to end the second inning. 

That's were things went cold for the Patriots.  The team struggled to keep the momentum going, going runless for the remainder of the game and giving up eight more runs to the Bears to end the game with a final score of 6-16.

The second act of the day proved to be a horse race.  Each team recorded three runs in the first inning with the Patriot runs coming from James Comenzo, Jared Boothman and Jon Hadinger.  Just as in game one, things slowed down the host school while the Bears hit their offensive stride. 

The Patriots earned their fourth of five runs in the bottom of the second inning from Jordan Diaz.  Diaz earned a walk to first base before stealing second to get into scoring position.  Advancing on a single from Jon Manning, Diaz continued on home before the Bears turned a double-play to end of the inning.  VFCC's final run came in the bottom of the seventh from Jonathan Manning.  Hitting to shortstop, Manning reached first after the Bears decided to take out the Patriots' lead runner, Jordon Diaz.  With two outs on the board, Manning went all out, stealing second and third to get within reach of home plate.  Matt McKenzie drove Manning in with a single to put the Patriots at seven, followed by a fly-out by James Comenzo to bring the game to a close, 5-12, in favor of the Bears.

Jared Boothman went 2-for-2 on the day with one run while Matthew McKenzie went 1-for-4 with two RBI's and two runs.  James Comenzo finished with two RBI's and one run.
The team rests for the Easter break before playing in a single game at Albright College, Wednesday April 23.  The game is scheduled to begin at 4pm.

Go Patriots!