UNIONDALE, NY – The D'Youville University baseball team kept their championship hopes alive on Friday with a 3-1 win over Queens College and an 11-5 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas College.
 
D'Youville 3, Queens 1
 
The Saints wasted no time getting on the board. After Hunter Nowak (Hamburg, N.Y.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, Jake Hollins (Orchard Park, N.Y.) brought him in with a double down the left field line.
 
In the top of the fifth, Hollins came through again, extending DYU's lead to 2-0 with an RBI single up the middle. Two batters later, Alec Boucher (Essex, Ontario) brought home Hollins with a single to third base, making it 3-0.
 
The Saints threatened to add some insurance in the top of the eighth after singles from Jeremy Glinski (Sloan, N.Y.) and Jon Simpson (Grand Island, N.Y.) put runners at the corners, but they were unable to score.
 
With DYU facing elimination, Billy Morris (Lancaster, N.Y.) twirled a gem on the mound, holding Queens scoreless through seven innings. Ultimately, Morris allowed just one run on eight hits and struck out four in eight innings of work.
 
Sam Worthen (Guelph, Ontario) shut the door on the Knights in the bottom of the ninth, thanks in part to a beautiful diving play and glove flip by Alex Dzimian (Lakeview, N.Y.) to turn two for the final out.
 
D'Youville 11, St. Thomas Aquinas 5
 
Mihir Manerikar (Mississauga, Ontario) got the start in DYU's second elimination game of the day and cruised through the first two innings, but the Spartans got to him in the top of the third to take a 2-0 lead.
 
The Saints got one back in the bottom of the third after a walk from Dillon Crook (Liverpool, N.Y.) and a base hit from Nowak set up an RBI single from Morris to cut it to 2-1.
 
After Glinski walked and Dzimian singled to start the bottom of the fourth, Simpson lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate a run and make it 3-2 STAC.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, infield singles from Boucher and Dzimian and a walk from Glinski loaded the bases with no outs. Ethan Hammond (Oakville, Ontario) came off the bench to draw a bases loaded walk to cut it to a 4-3 Spartans lead. A wild pitch then brought in Dzimian to tie the game at 4-4.
 
After STAC retook the lead in the top of the seventh, the Saints responded with two runs thanks to a pair of throwing errors by the Spartans to take a 6-5 advantage.
 
After DYU loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Boucher cleared the bases with a double down the left field line to extend the lead to 9-5. Two batters later, Dzimian laid down a bunt that STAC's pitcher threw away, allowing two more runs to score and make it 11-5.
 
Worthen got the win after throwing four innings in relief, allowing one run on three hits and punching out five.
 
D'Youville will square off against Molloy University in the ECC Championship on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. The Saints went 2-2 against the Lions in the regular season.