WORCESTER, MA- The Wheaton College baseball team ripped off its
10th and 11th straight New England Women's and Men's Athletic
Conference (NEWMAC) victories on Sunday afternoon at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to secure the regular season
championship and top seed in this week's league tournament.
The Lyons won 12-1 in the opener to clinch the outright crown
before exploding for a 17-3 triumph during game two at Class of
1893 Field.
Improving to 21-7 overall and finishing its conference ledger at
11-1 for the third time in the NEWMAC's 12-year history, Wheaton
has now at least shared the league's regular season championship 11
times. The Lyons will host sixth seed Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) during the opening round of the
double-elimination tournament on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. WPI
fell to 19-8 and 7-5 while finishing as the third seed.
Sophomore Dan Haugh (Andover, MA/Saint John's
Prep) had a monster day at the plate for the Lyons, going
a combined 6-for-8 with five runs and four RBI. Senior righty
Nick Kostaras (North Attleboro, MA/North
Attleboro) had his best outing of the season in tossing
five shutout innings on one hit in game one, holding WPI hitless
until the fifth frame, while freshman righthander Corey Laliberte (Fall River, MA/B.M.C. Durfee) went seven solid
innings to collect the victory in the second contest.
Game one saw the Lyons pull away with back-to-back five-run
frames in the fifth and sixth innings to turn a 2-0 lead into a
commanding 12-0 advantage. Eight of Wheaton's nine starters
picked up at least one hit, with Haugh and freshman Sean Ryan (Norton, MA/Norton) each going 3-for-4. Haugh
had four RBI and two runs, while Ryan also scored twice.
Recording two hits each were seniors Jeff Lieneck
(Foxboro, MA/Xaverian Brothers) and Paul Malaguti
(Andover, MA/Andover) and juniors Sean Munley
(Trenton, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) and Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH/Holderness School). Lieneck
and Munley plated two runs apiece, while Malaguti, Skelley and
sophomore Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) scored two
runs each. Kostaras faced three batters over the minimum,
fanning two and walking one.
The visitors plated the game's initial run in the first, when
Haugh singled home Landers, while Kostaras set the tone early in
retiring his first six batters in order. Haugh scored
Wheaton's second run in the fourth, as he was brought around on
freshman Eric Jensen's (Gorham, NH/Gorham) RBI
single. The Lyons scored their five fifth-inning runs on five
hits and two Engineers miscues before smacking six hits during
their five-run sixth.
The Blue and White scored 17 unanswered runs in game two,
matching its game-one hit total of 16. Haugh and Landers each
notched three hits, with Haugh scoring three times and Landers
driving in two while scoring two others. Lieneck, Malaguti
and Munley posted two hits apiece, as Lieneck belted two doubles
and added three runs, while Munley tallied three RBI.
Senior Jason Clucas (Peabody, MA/Saint John's
Prep) accounted for five runs with three RBI while scoring
twice, sophomore John Keating (Duxbury, MA/Northfield Mount
Hermon School) tripled and had a pair of runs batted in,
while Jensen homered. Laliberte struck out two WPI batters,
issued zero walks, yielded three runs and scattered six hits.
After surrendering three runs in the first, Wheaton immediately
countered with three runs of its own in the second, with Lieneck
posting a run-scoring double. The Lyons took the lead for
good on Jensen's leadoff home run in the third that sparked a
four-run inning, as Clucas, Munley and junior Hadi Raad
(Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Hastings) each drove in a
run. Wheaton tacked on two runs apiece in the fourth and
fifth frames before pushing six across in the eighth.
