Mitchell takes first two games against Newbury

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team captured the first two games of its weekend series against Newbury College on Saturday afternoon by final scores of 2-1 and 7-4.
 
Mitchell improved to 14-12 overall and 9-5 in the NECC. The Mariners secured a berth in the upcoming NECC Championship on May 7-9 and will be no worse than the third seed. Newbury dropped to 6-25 overall and 4-10 in the conference.
 
Prior to the game, Mitchell honored its three seniors—Jeremy Chapman (Waterford, Conn.), Andrew Langlais (Ledyard, Conn.) and Jared Bishop (Moosup, Conn.) — in a special ceremony. All three seniors contributed to the victories in the final regular season home games of their career.
 
Game 1 — Mitchell 2, Newbury 1
 
Chapman turned in another impressive performance on the mound for the Mariners, giving up one run on three hits while striking out nine over 7.0 innings. He improved to 6-0 on the season.
 
Newbury got on the board in the second inning after Michael Dean (Wethersfield, Conn.) and Alex Chetelat (Farmington, Conn.) led off with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Chapman got the next batter to fly out and looked ready to escape the jam. However, he issued consecutive walks to Aqib Shah (Watertown, Mass.) and Matthew Clawson (Tolland, Conn.) to force in a run before getting the final out of the frame.
 
 Freshman Justin Szela (Woodstock, Conn.) had a big game for Mitchell, reaching base three times while collecting a pair of hits. He drove in the tying run in the bottom of the second with a single to center, and he scored the go-ahead run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to center by classmate Connor Rochefort (Dayville, Conn.).
 
Once Chapman was handed the 2-1 lead he took care of the rest. He didn’t allow a hit over the final four innings and retired 11 straight batters to end the game.
 
Junior Jeff Perillo (Newington, Conn.) went 2-for-3 in the game and extended his hitting streak to a team-high 15 games. Sophomore Tommy Derosier (Brooklyn, Conn.) also finished with a pair of hits including a double.
 
Zach Griesche (Niskayuna, N.Y.) took the loss for the Nighthawks despite a strong performance. He allowed two runs (one earned) on seven hits over 6.0 innings and dropped to 2-7 overall on the season.
 
Game 2 – Mitchell 7, Newbury 4
 
Mitchell scored all seven runs in the first three innings to give freshman pitcher Garrett Cornwell (Oxford, Conn.) a comfortable lead. Cornwell improved to 4-2 overall and gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits over 6.0 innings. Junior Cody Faddis (Muskogee, Okla.) shut Newbury down with a scoreless seventh inning to pick up his first save of the season.
 
Bishop went 2-for-3 with three RBI to pace the Mariners at the plate. Langlais finished with a pair of doubles and knocked in a run while scoring twice.
 
Mitchell opened the game with a bang, as junior Paul Martinez (New London, Conn.) led off with his fourth homer of the season. The Mariners then added two runs in the second inning on an RBI single by Bishop and a sacrifice fly to center by Szela to take a 3-0 lead.
 
A four-run fourth inning extended the lead to 7-0 for the Mariners. Back-to-back doubles by Langlais and Bishop plated the first three runs of the frame, and a Newbury fielding error allowed the final run to cross the plate.
 
The Nighthawks got a run back in the fourth on an RBI single by Justin MacCutcheon (Woburn, Mass.). Newbury threatened for more in the inning but Cornwell escaped further damage by getting a bases-loaded strikeout to end the frame.
 
Newbury put up three runs in the sixth to close the gap to 7-4. Dean scored from third on a wild pitch for the first run, and an infield single by Clawson brought in two more after an errant throw allowed Chetelat to score from second.
 
Christopher Ninteau (Lisbon, Conn.) got the start for the Nighthawks and gave up seven runs (four earned) on seven hits in 6.0 innings. He also struck out two and walked one and dropped to 1-8 overall on the season.
 
The two teams will wrap up their three-game series with a nine-inning affair on Sunday, May 2 at Boston College. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Story provided by: Mitchell College Sports Information