NORTON, MA- The Wheaton College baseball team scored the final
three runs in Friday's non-conference game against visiting
Bridgewater State College, as the Lyons edged out the Bears, 3-2,
despite stranding 15 runners and loading the bases in five
different innings at Sidell Stadium.
Receiving votes in the D3baseball.com national poll and ranked
second regionally by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball
Association (NEIBA), Wheaton knocked off Bridgewater State by a
single run for the second time this season to improve to
19-7. The Bears slipped to 12-11.
Freshman Justin Santiago (Bronx,
NY/Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy) improved to 3-0 on the
hill, going 6.1 innings while yielding the two runs on five hits
with three strikeouts and four walks. Sophomore David Longley (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) fanned three Bear
batters over 1.2 hitless frames, and senior closer Jon Shepard (Salisbury, MA/Triton Regional) turned in a 1-2-3
ninth with two strikeouts for his fourth save of the spring.
Sophomore Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) and
freshman Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH/Gorham) combined
on five of Wheaton's eight hits, with Landers going 3-for-5 with a
pair of bunt singles and Jensen recording two knocks and one
run. Junior Sean Munley (Trenton, NJ/The Hun School
of Princeton) drew two walks, was hit by a pitch twice and
plated a run, while freshman Sean Ryan (Norton,
MA/Norton) drove in a run and swiped two bags.
Junior Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH/Holderness
School) drew two walks and scored once, senior
Paul Malaguti (Andover, MA/Andover) had a pair of
walks, and junior Hadi Raad (Hastings-on-Hudson,
NY/Hastings) accounted for a run and a walk.
Bridgewater State managed just five hits, as junior Ian
Williams (Taunton, MA/Taunton) went 2-for-4 with a run and
an RBI, while senior Tom Couet (East Freetown,
MA/Apponequet Regional) smacked an RBI double to left
during his team's two-run first inning. Freshman
Bryant Warner (Harwich, MA/Harwich) suffered his
initial loss of the season, surrendering two earned runs while
scattering six hits with four strikeouts and six walks over
five-plus innings.
A two-out rally for the Bears provided them their lone two runs,
as Williams recorded an RBI single before scoring on Couet's
two-bagger. After jamming the bags in a scoreless first,
Wheaton countered with two runs in the second, as back-to-back
singles and a base on balls led to another bases-loaded
situation. Ryan plated the first run and Raad also scored on
the play on an errant throw.
Santiago settled in after a tough first inning, retiring 13 of
his next 16 batters while not allowing a hit before giving up a
two-out single in the sixth. The hosts left the bases loaded
in each the fourth, sixth and seventh innings but did manage a run
in the sixth, when Munley drew a two-out RBI walk. Wheaton
again loaded them up in the seventh with one down, but freshman
relief pitcher Jonathan Surette (Lynn, MA/Lynn
English) fanned a batter and induced a pop fly to squash
the Lyon rally.
Wheaton finishes off its New England Women's and Men's Athletic
Conference (NEWMAC) slate with a doubleheader at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (WPI) tomorrow at 12:00 p.m., as the Lyons
and Engineers will play for the regular season championship and top
seed in next week's tournament. Wheaton needs to win one of
the two in order to accomplish both, while WPI must produce a
sweep.
