Griesche & Ninteau Shut Down Mountaineers

The Newbury College baseball program collected their first conference victories of the season with a double-header sweep of Southern Vermont College on Saturday, April 3, 2010 by scores of 5-3 and 4-3.  Freshmen pitchers Zach Griesche (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) and Christopher Ninteau (Lisbon, CT/Griswold) paced the Nighthawks as they each threw complete games, collecting four and seven strikeouts in games one and two, respectively. 

Newbury jumped on the board early in game one as Patrick Curry (Hampstead, NH/Pinkerton Academy) blasted a solo shot over the right field fence to put the Nighthawks up 1-0.  Griesche would hold the Mountaineer bats to just two hits over the first three innings, while his offense was able to tack on another run in the top of third inning as Robert Atkinson (Needham, MA/Needham) scored on an RBI single by Michael Dean (Wethersfield, CT/Wethersfield). 

The Nighthawks received some timely hitting from Aqib Shah (Watertown, MA/Watertown), Atkinson, and Alex Chetelat (Farmington, CT/Farmington) who produced three consecutive hits in the top of the fourth bringing the Newbury lead to 5-0.  Southern Vermont would answer with some offense of their own in the bottom of the fourth as Joel Defedele (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown) and Keith Diotte (Cambridge, NY/Cambridge) provided RBI singles to cut the deficit to just two runs.  Griesche, however, would allow just one hit in each of the final three innings and the Newbury defense sealed the 5-3 victory.

Game two also saw an early Newbury lead as they pushed three runs across the plate in the top of the third inning.  After Atkinson grounded out to the second baseman, leadoff hitter Russell DeMatties (Hamden, CT/Hamden) singled for his third hit of the day.  Teammate Joseph Herer (Needham, MA/Needham) followed with a single of his own and would advance to third on an RBI double by Curry that scored DeMatties.  After Herer scored on a passed ball, Dean singled to drive in Curry from third base.  Herer would also double in the fourth to drive in Atkinson and give the Nighthawks the 4-0 advantage.

Southern Vermont answered with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth off extra base hits by Eric Wells (Athens, PA/Athens) and Dan Cook (Watervliet, NY/Watervliet).  Wells would homer to right center field in the bottom of the sixth to bring the Mountaineers to within one but Newbury would hold on in the seventh inning to complete the sweep.

The wins bring the Nighthawks to 2-1 in New England Collegiate Conference play as they prepare for a non-conference game against Lasell College on Tuesday, April 6, 2010.  The teams will square off at the Brandeis University campus; first pitch at 7:00 PM.