The Lancaster Bible College baseball team won for the fourth time in five games on Tuesday, defeating cross-county foe Elizabethtown, 6-5 in 10 innings. The Chargers are now 7-10 overall this season, while the Blue Jays dropped to 7-19.
 
How it Happened: Lancaster Bible put two runners on in the top of the first inning, but stranded them, and Elizabethtown scored twice in its first at-bat to grab an early 2-0 lead.
 
Mike VanDame led off the third inning with a single, and after two outs, VanDame advanced to second on a base hit from Jacob Schenck. Will Welsh followed with a single up the middle, and VanDame came around to score and cut the Chargers' deficit in half.
 
The game remained 2-1 until the bottom of the sixth, when Elizabethtown scored on a sacrifice fly to extend its lead back to two. The Chargers again cut into the Blue Jays' lead in the top of the eighth, when Jake Hahn and Colin Myers earned walks after a single from Adam Cohick with two outs. With the bases loaded for Jaden Pinkney, the runners all advanced one base on a passed ball and the Chargers trailed by just one.
 
Elizabethtown got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on another sacrifice fly, and Lancaster Bible trailed by two heading to the ninth. After an out, Josh Saufley doubled to left field, but another out followed, and the Chargers were down to their final out with Saufley on second.
 
Schenck singled to left to bring home Saufley and bring the Chargers to within one, and Welsh followed with a home run down the left field line that just cleared the fence, and the Chargers had their first lead of the game, 5-4.
 
After Luis Padilla Jr. pitched a tremendous eight innings, Dan Zimmerman took over for the Chargers, and after giving up a single, got a double play to bring the Chargers to within an out of a win. Elizabethtown followed with a double, and then a wild pitch brought them a bag closer. An error by the Chargers on the next batter tied the game, and the teams headed to extra innings.
 
Lancaster Bible loaded the bases in the 10^th inning after the Blue Jays made an error of their own, and Saufley hit an RBI groundout and the Chargers regained the lead. Zimmerman struck out the side in the bottom half of the inning, and Lancaster Bible had its first true road win of the year.
 
Inside the Box Score: Lancaster Bible had 11 hits, has Schenck was 2-for-4 with a walk, a run and an RBI…Welsh was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a run scored…Myers was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a walk…VanDame was also 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored…Saufley, McFarland, and Cohick also had hits for the Chargers…Padilla pitched eight innings and allowed eight hits and four runs, while striking out four…Zimmerman threw two innings and allowed two hits, while striking out three.
 
Information Hodge Podge: Tuesday marked the first-ever win for the Chargers over Elizabethtown, as Lancaster Bible is now 1-6 all-time against the Blue Jays…Tuesday marked the Chargers' first 10-inning game since Apr. 15, 2017 when the team lost to Gallaudet 4-3 in Washington, D.C….Welsh has homered in each of his past four games, and now has eight this season…Padilla's earned run average dropped to 3.86 after his start on Tuesday…Zimmerman leads the team with three wins this season…Lancaster Bible is hitting .318 as a team this year.
 
Up Next: Lancaster Bible heads to upstate New York this weekend to take on SUNY Poly in a three-game series.