CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) baseball team was defeated by host Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 6-3, in the opening game of a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference doubleheader this afternoon at Fran O'Brien Field in Cambridge, Mass.
The Lyons drop to 15-11 overall and 9-5 in conference play, while the Engineers improve to 14-15 and 4-8.
Wheaton scored a single run in the top of the first, before MIT scored six unanswered runs, including three in the fifth and two in the sixth innings to take a 6-1 advantage. The Lyons rallied for two runs in the ninth, but were unable to come all the way back.
Senior shortstop Mike Maher (Jefferson, Mass.) led the Wheaton offense with a 3-5 effort, including a double and two runs batted in. Junior second baseman Tommy Beauregard (Salem, Mass.) contributed, going 3-2 with a run scored and a stolen base. Junior right-handed starter Ryan McCarroll (Clifton Park, N.Y.) took the loss to drop to 5-2 after giving up four runs on seven hits, while striking out four in five innings of work.
Sophomore third baseman Zev Moore (Jerusalem, Israel) paced the Engineers with two RBI behind a 2-3 showing at the plate, including a pair of doubles. Junior shortstop Reed Tubbs (Pflugerville, Texas) was 2-3 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored, while graduate student second baseman Kyle Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.) was 2-4 with a run batted in. Sophomore righty Chase Rubin (Arlington, Va.) earned the victory with three innings of scoreless relief to improve to 2-3 on the season. He allowed two hits and a pair of walks in addition to three strikeouts. Junior reliever Brian Rapanan (Gurnee, Ill.) picked up his second save of the season after hurling three innings and giving up two unearned runs on two hits and a walk. He fanned two batters to give the MIT staff 12 strikeouts for the game.
The Engineers broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth inning to take a 4-1 lead. Senior Kennan Gumbs (New York, N.Y.) reached on an infield single to open the frame, before stealing second and scoring ahead of a single to center field off the bat of Schoenfeld to give MIT the lead for good. Tubbs belted an RBI double to left center to score Schoenfeld and Sonandres followed with an RBI single to left to give the home team a three-run lead.
The Engineers tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth to take a 6-1 advantage. The first two batters in the inning reached safely with senior Michael Finch (Brentwood, Tenn.) ripping a single to center and Sonandres getting hit by a pitch, before both runners moved into scoring position following a sacrifice bunt. Moore took advantage of the situation and clubbed a double to center to plate both runners and increase MIT's lead by two.
The Lyons scored a pair of runs in the ninth to cut the deficit to three. Beauregard drew a one-out walk and senior center fielder AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) reached on an error, before Maher smacked a two-run double to center field to cut the deficit to 6-3.
Wheaton looked primed to put multiple runs on the board right away after loading the bases with no outs in the top of the first, but managed just one run. Guindon reached on an error to open the game, before first year third baseman Casey Wensley (Raynham, Mass.) and Maher connected for back-to-back singles. Engineer senior starting pitcher Karl Meyer (Indianapolis, Ind.) looked like he might escape the inning without any damage after fanning the next two Lyon hitters, but he plunked first year left fielder Shawn Cali (East Taunton, Mass.) to force in Guindon with the first run of the game.
MIT pulled even with a run in the third to make it 1-1. Moore cracked a lead-off double to right field and moved to third on a sacrifice, before scoring the equalizer on a ground out.
