UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Fourth-seeded D'Youville opened the 2026 ECC Baseball Championship against top-seeded Molloy on Thursday afternoon at Mitchel Field, falling 8-3 in the tournament opener and moving into an elimination game Friday morning at 10 a.m. against the loser of St. Thomas Aquinas and Mercy.
D'Youville (18-31) struck first in the top of the opening inning, capitalizing on one of Molloy's three errors in the contest. Jacob Cooper reached and advanced to third on a throwing miscue before coming home on an RBI groundout from Garett Wilson to give the Saints an early 1-0 advantage.
The Lions responded in the third inning with four runs to take the lead. A throwing error helped extend the frame before Molloy added RBI hits from Mike Sweeney and Sean Welsh to move in front 4-1. Molloy pushed the lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly before adding three more runs in the seventh to extend the advantage to 8-1.
The Saints continued to battle late and trimmed the deficit in the eighth inning. Billy Morris singled and later scored after Blaise Kolbert drew an RBI walk with the bases loaded. Another bases-loaded walk, this time by Kevin Del Vecchio, brought home Colby Wilson to make it 8-3.
Cooper and Morris each collected two hits to lead the D'Youville offense, while Kolbert reached base three times with a hit and two walks. Wilson added an RBI in the effort.
Morris also made the start on the mound for the Saints, tossing four innings with two strikeouts. Evan Froelich worked 2.1 innings out of the bullpen and struck out two before Eric Osterstrom closed the game with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit.
The Saints will need to win-out in order to capture the ECC Championship as their playoff run continues at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Mitchel Field.
