NORTON, Mass. - The Wheaton College baseball team was handed just its second home loss in 17 games while having its six-game winning streak snapped, as the Lyons dropped a 7-4 decision to visiting Western New England College in a contest between regionally-ranked teams on Monday at Sidell Stadium.
Ranked 21st nationally by D3baseball.com and second in the region according to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA), Wheaton is now 25-8. Receiving national votes and ranked fifth in New England, the 28-8 Golden Bears stretched their winning streak to five games.
Junior John Keating (Duxbury, Mass./Northfield Mount Hermon School) went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI to lead Wheaton's 13-hit attack. Seniors Sean Munley (Ewing, N.J./The Hun School of Princeton) and Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, N.H./Holderness School) and juniors Dan Haugh (Andover, Mass./Saint John's Prep) and Hal Landers (Salem, N.H./Salem) posted two hits apiece, with Landers plating a run and Skelley scoring one.
Keating and Skelley each doubled, and sophomore Paul O'Neill (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) homered. Junior hurler Nolan Corr (Somersworth, N.H./Saint Thomas Aquinas) yielded four earned runs on eight hits with one strikeout over 4.1 innings in the loss.
The visitors pounded out 14 hits, as sophomores Kyle McKelvey (Schenectady, N.Y./Schalmont) and Mike Rubino (Northford, Conn./Hill Regional Career) each went 3-for-5. Rubino and senior Jason Leclerc (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee) plated two runs apiece, while McKelvey and sophomore Tim Clark (West Springfield, Mass./Avon Old Farms School) each scored twice.
Senior Zach Cloft (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) improved to 6-1 on the hill, yielding three runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and one walk in six-plus innings. Junior Mike Lawlor (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) earned his fifth save after tossing 1.2 shutout frames and getting out of a bases-loaded jam.
After a pitcher's duel ensued through the first four innings, the Golden Bears tagged Corr for four runs on four hits in the top of the fifth, with Rubino's two-run single making the score 3-0. Corr faced one more batter before freshman Alec Palioca (Wrentham, Mass./King Philip Regional) came on to force a pair of outfield flies, including one that plated a run. Wheaton put two runners on with one down in the home half but came away empty, as a strikeout and a groundout ended the threat.
A single, double and a sacrifice fly to lead off the seventh led to Western New England's fifth run. The hosts quickly answered in the bottom half with O'Neill's first career homer and consecutive doubles from Skelley and Keating to make the score 5-2 while chasing Cloft. Keating proceeded to move to third on a groundout before scoring on sophomore Eric Jensen's (Gorham, N.H./Gorham) infield single.
McKelvey and Clark combined to bring home the visitors' sixth run in the eighth, with Clark delivering an RBI base knock after McKelvey doubled to lead off the frame. A fielding error pushed Western New England's seventh run across. The Blue and White responded by jamming the bags with one down in the home half of the inning, cutting its deficit to three with a sac fly, before Lawlor closed the door.
The Lyons head to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth tomorrow afternoon for a non-conference game slated to begin at 4:00 p.m.
