Chetelat Complete's Nighthawks Eighth Inning Comeback

First baseman Alex Chetelat  capped off a five run bottom of the eighth with an infield single, clearing the bases to give Newbury College the 9-6 come-from-behind victory over Albertus Magnus.

Down by two runs in the bottom of the eight, the Nighthawks were down to their final six outs of the game. Pinch hitting for starting catcher Christopher Murphy, junior Joey Herer singled to begin the inning. Two batters later, right fielder Matthew Clawson  lined a rocket to right-center for his second triple of the game, plating Herer to cut the deficit to just one.

After Clawson's triple, the Falcons brought in senior Adam Platner (Northford, Conn./North Branford) to face junior Patrick Curry. Curry kept the inning going, driving home Clawson to tied up the ballgame at six. Following a ground out by centerfielder Kyle Schiavone, the Falcons opted not to pitch to Newbury's RBI leader left fielder Michael Dean with two outs. Chetelat made them pay, after shortstop Russell DeMatties was granted first after being hit by the pitch, with a laser beam in between first and second base as Curry, Dean and DeMatties all crossed home to complete the Nighthawk comeback.

Albertus jumped on top of Newbury starter Alec Thibodeau in the top of the first with back-to-back base hits by the Falcons. Right fielder Kyle Calechman (North Haven, Conn./North Haven) led off the game with a double down the third baseline followed by a base hit from left fielder Robert Gambardella (North Haven, Conn./North Haven). Shortstop Bobby Bengivengo (Oxford, Conn./Seymour) drove home Calechman with a base hit back where it came to pu the Falcons on the scoreboard early. Centerfielder Zak Sokolis (Meriden, Conn./Maloney) lifted a sacrifice fly to deep center to plate Gambardella for the second run of the inning.

Thibodeau settled down towards the end of the frame, catching Bengivengo leaning to far towards second and striking out second baseman Jon Almonte (New York, N.Y./LaSalle Academy). 

The Nighthawks cut the deficit to three in the bottom half of the frame but the Falcons responded and widened the gap back to two. Though it was short-lived, Newbury batted around in the home half of the second, plating three runs to take the one run advantage. It stood that way until the fourth inning when Albertus put up three runs to take a 6-3 lead and eventually knock Thibodeau out of the ballgame.

Freshman southpaw Shawn Marcelle pitched a masterful 4.1 innings in relief of Thibodeau to give the Nighthawks the opportunity at an eighth inning comeback. Marcelle earned his third victory of the season, allowing just one hit while striking out five Falcons.

With the win, Newbury improves to 7-9 on the season, their most wins since the program was re-started in 2007, while Albertus Magnus falls to 3-7 on the season. The Nighthawks return to action on Thursday March 24^th when they host Fitchburg State University at English High School. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00pm.