NORTON, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) took advantage of seven errors and routed visiting Clark University (Mass.), 12-0, to gain a split of a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference doubleheader this afternoon at Sidell Stadium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The game was halted after seven innings due to the NEWMAC's 10-run mercy rule.
The Lyons have won four of their last five games and improve to 26-11 overall and 10-6 in league play, while the Cougars fall to 21-16 and 7-9. Wheaton's win secured the number two seed in the upcoming NEWMAC Baseball Championship Tournament. The Lyons received a first round bye and will take on the winner of the number three and sixth seeds on Friday, May 8 at 3:30 p.m. at Sidell Stadium in the opening round game of the league's double elimination tournament.
Wheaton did all of its scoring with multiple runs in four different innings. The Lyons scored twice in the first, before adding three more runs in the second to take a 5-0 lead. Wheaton added four runs in the fourth and three in the sixth to reach the 10-run plateau to shorten the game to seven innings.
First year left fielder Brayden Lewis (Hopedale, Mass.) knocked in two runs with a home run during a 2-3 outing for the Lyons, while sophomore designated hitter Logan Downey (Warwick, R.I.) was 2-3 with an RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base. Junior center fielder Robbie Lamond (North Kingstown, R.I.) contributed by going 2-3 with a triple, two runs scored and a run batted in. Senior right-handed starting pitcher Ben Oliveira (Somerset, Mass.) tossed five shutout frames on five hits and three walks to go with five strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 1-0.
Senior second baseman Dom Mariani (Walpole, Mass.) paced Clark's offense with a 2-3 effort and senior center fielder Jake Faulkenham (Chelmsford, Mass.) was 2-4. Senior Nicolo Mainardi (Rhinebeck, N.Y.) was 1-3 with a double. Graduate student starting pitcher Connor Schmautz (Shrewsbury, Mass.) suffered the loss to drop to 1-3 after surrendering five runs (one earned) on two hits and a pair of walks to go with a strikeout in two innings of work.
The Cougars committed four errors in the first inning, while Wheaton took advantage to put two runs on the board.
Like the inning before, the Lyons registered just one hit, but scored multiple runs, capitalizing on Clark's miscues. The visitors committed two more errors and Wheaton crossed the plate three times to take a 5-0 margin. Senior first baseman Collin Reilly (Marshfield, Mass.) knocked in a run with a single and Downey plated a run with a sacrifice fly to highlight the inning.
The Lyons scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 9-0 lead. First year shortstop Evan Jones (West Haven, Conn.) opened the frame with a single and later trotted home ahead of a two-run homer off the bat of Lewis to give him a team-high 10 on the season. Downey also benefited from a big clout from a teammate when he singled and scored on a triple to the left-center gap off the bat of Lamond to make it 8-0. Lamond scored on an infield throwing error.
Wheaton received the runs it needed to trigger the mercy rule with three in the bottom of the sixth. The first four batters in the inning all reached base, resulting in a run for the Lyons. Downey and Lamond hit back-to-back singles to open the inning, before first year
Wyatt Soucie (North Yarmouth, Maine) worked a full-count walk to load the bases with no outs. Downey scored on a wild pitch, before sophomore third baseman
Jeremy Aylward (Hingham, Mass.) drew a walk to re-load the bases. Lamond scored on a double play, before Jones reached on an infield hit to drive in Soucie with the final run of the game.
