PHILADELPHIA – Making just his second career collegiate start, senior Justin Derk worked five innings of one-hit ball to help the USciences baseball team salvage a doubleheader split with defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) champion Bloomsburg in the Devils' season-opening doubleheader at Father Judge High School on Sunday.  

The Huskies won game one 11-1, before University of the Sciences blanked BU 6-0 in the nightcap for its first shutout victory since March 13, 2019. 

Evan Sinclair had two hits in both contests, finishing the day 4-for-7 with three RBI and a walk. 

Game Two

Derk did not allow a runner to reach scoring position, working around a two-out error in the second while giving up just a lone two-out single in the third.   

He was lifted after walking the leadoff batter in the sixth, and reliever Chris Brown worked out of a bases-loaded jam - that was caused by a two-out error - by ending the frame with a strikeout. 

Brown would also work out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh with a punch-out, preserving the shutout with two innings of one-hit relief that featured three strikeouts. 

Derk's five innings were a new career-high, and he also struck out a career-best five against just the one base on balls. He worked 1-2-3 frames in the first, fourth and fifth. 

Adam Estrada's leadoff walk that led to a two-out RBI single by AJ Pena in the second would prove to be all USciences would need, but Estrada added an exclamation point when his first career collegiate home run drove in three in the third.  

Sinclair added RBI base knocks in the fourth and sixth, as he finished the nightcap 2-for-3 with a base on balls.                                                                                               

Game One

Bloomsburg led throughout following a four-run first. 

Pena led off the third with double before coming around to score on Sinclair's two-out single, but USciences stranded two runners – as it had done in the first – and the Huskies immediately answered with a two-run fourth. 

Pena was also involved in University of the Sciences' three-run sixth, driving in two with a two-out single. 

He was one of three Devils to finish 2-for-3, joining Sinclair and Estrada.  

University of the Sciences was only out-hit 11-10, but Bloomsburg went 7-for-18 with runners in scoring position compared to the Devils' 3-for-12. 

Making his first-ever collegiate pitching appearance, Louis Fresta surrendered just one earned on two hits in 3.1 innings.

Estrada notably also made his first career collegiate pitching appearance. 

Up Next

The two teams play another doubleheader tomorrow at 12 p.m., this one at Bloomsburg as a makeup from Saturday's postponement.