NORTON, MA- The top-seeded Wheaton College baseball team
extended its postseason winning streak against number-six
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to seven games
following Wednesday's 5-2 victory during the opening day of the New
England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament
at Sidell Stadium.
The Lyons will host fourth-seeded Clark University tomorrow at
3:30 p.m., when MIT travels to number-five United States Coast
Guard Academy in an elimination game. Wheaton, which is
ranked 24th nationally and tied for second in the New England poll,
won its 18th straight meeting with the Engineers to improve to 22-7
overall. MIT dipped below the .500 mark at 11-12.
Sophomore Dan Haugh (Andover,
MA/Saint John's Prep) went 3-for-5 with two runs and a
pair of RBI, including belting a two-run homer in the fifth that
put the Lyons in front for good. Haugh accounted for half of
Wheaton's hits, while senior Paul Malaguti
(Andover, MA/Andover) and sophomore Hal Landers (Salem,
NH/Salem) each drew three of the hosts' 10 walks.
Malaguti was also plunked, as he reached base four times in five
plate appearances.
Sophomore Nolan Corr
(Somersworth, NH/Saint Thomas Aquinas), who entered the
game second among all Division III pitchers in ERA, improved to a
perfect 7-0, yielding two unearned runs while scattering six hits
with one strikeout and two walks in seven innings. Classmate
David
Longley (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) tossed a 1-2-3
eighth with one strikeout, setting up senior closer Jon Shepard
(Salisbury, MA/Triton Regional), who pitched a perfect
ninth for his fifth save of the season.
Six different Engineers recorded a hit, with junior
William Blackman (Calabasas, CA/Viewpoint School)
driving in a run. Senior Stewart Park (Brooklyn,
NY/Xaverian) and freshman James McKinney
(Wakefield, RI/South Kingstown) each scored, while
sophomore Chris Hendrix (Richardson, TX/L.V.
Berkner) suffered the loss in relief, surrendering two
runs on one hit with one strikeout and two walks over 1.2
frames.
Wheaton manufactured a run in the third, as Landers led off with
a walk, advanced to second on a sac bunt and moved to third on a
passed ball before scoring on a failed pickoff attempt at first
base. Corr cruised through the first three innings, carrying
a no-hitter into the fourth before running into trouble.
After a Lyon miscue put McKinney on second to open the fourth,
back-to-back singles knotted the game. The next Engineer
batter grounded into a double play, but the visitors plated their
second run on the play. In the home half of the fifth,
Malaguti drew a two-out walk and Haugh drove his ball over the left
field fence for a 3-2 Lyon edge.
MIT put a runner on in each the fifth, sixth and seventh but
came away empty, while Wheaton tacked on a pair of insurance runs
on four hits in the seventh. Junior Sean Munley (Trenton,
NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) and freshman Eric Jensen
(Gorham, NH/Gorham) had an RBI apiece.
