NORTON, MA- The Wheaton College baseball team extended its
winning streak to five games following Saturday's New England
Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader sweep
over Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Sidell
Stadium. The Lyons posted a 9-0 shutout in game one before
notching a 7-4 victory in the second contest.
Receiving national votes by D3baseball.com, Wheaton improved to
8-4 overall and 3-1 in league play while extending its series
winning streak against MIT to 16. Opening their NEWMAC slate,
the Engineers fell to 4-5 and 0-2.
In the opener, sophomore Nolan Corr (Somersworth,
NH/Saint Thomas Aquinas) fired a three-hit shutout with
five strikeouts and two walks, facing just two batters over the
minimum to improve to 3-0. Offensively, Wheaton smacked 12
hits while scoring three runs in the first and four in the
fifth.
Sophomore Dan Haugh (Andover, MA/Saint John's
Prep) went 3-for-4 with three runs, while senior
Jason Clucas (Peabody, MA/Saint John's Prep),
junior Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH/Holderness
School) and freshman Eric Jensen (Gorham,
NH/Gorham) each had two hits. Clucas and Jensen also
drove in two runs apiece. Junior Sean Munley
(Trenton, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) plated two and
scored twice, while classmate Hadi Raad
(Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Hastings) added two RBI.
Three different Engineers had a hit, and sophomore Torre
Swanson (Redding, CA/Foothill) suffered his second loss of
the spring, surrendering eight runs, seven earned, on 10 hits with
three strikeouts and one base on balls in five frames.
Wheaton rallied with two down in the first, with Munley's
two-bagger bringing around Haugh and senior Paul Malaguti
(Andover, MA/Andover), while Clucas' run-scoring single
made it 3-0. After tacking on a run in the fourth, the Lyons
scored four runs with two out in the fifth. Raad's two-run
double made the score 6-0 before Jensen and Skelley produced
run-scoring hits for an eight-run cushion.
During game two, Wheaton's offense accounted for 15 hits, while
senior righty Nick Kostaras (North Attleboro, MA/North
Attleboro) picked up his first win of the season. He
yielded two runs, one earned, with three strikeouts and two walks
on seven hits in six innings. Malaguti, sophomore Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) and freshman Sean Ryan
(Norton, MA/Norton) combined to go 9-for-14 with five runs
and four RBI from the top three positions in the order.
Malaguti was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a home run, Landers and
Ryan each had three hits and scored twice, with Landers sending one
over the fence, while Haugh had two hits and a pair of RBI.
Munley also had two base knocks.
For MIT, junior William Blackman (Calabasas,
CA/Viewpoint School), sophomore A.J. Hansborough
(Deltona, FL/Deltona) and freshman James McKinney
(Wakefield, RI/South Kingstown) posted two hits apiece,
while sophomore Chris Vaughan (Fort Worth, TX/Arlington
Heights) was saddled with the loss after giving up four
earned runs on 10 hits in five innings.
Similar to the opener, Wheaton struck first, this time scoring
twice on a Haugh two-run double in the first. MIT battled
back to even the game in the fifth before the Lyons scored five
straight runs to make the score 7-2. Landers homered to open
the fifth and was eventually followed by a Malaguti RBI
single. The hosts plated two unearned runs in the sixth
before Malaguti had a solo shot to begin the seventh.
The Lyons wrap up their four-game homestand tomorrow afternoon
against the University of Massachusetts at Boston at 1:00 p.m.
