Nighthawks Break Records in Sweep of Lynx

Catcher Patrick Curry  broke two Newbury College all-time records to help the Nighthawks sweep the Lynx of Lesley University, Sunday afternoon, 8-2 and 9-2, in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action. Curry came into today's game one RBI shy of tying William Maddock of the all-time Newbury record and four hits away from the all-time record in hits.

The Lynx jumped on the scoreboard early. Shortstop Aqib Shah (Watertown, Mass.) lined a one-out base hit back where it came from then got into scoring position with a steal of second. Two batters later catcher Jeff Gonzalez (Watertown, Mass.) drove in his fellow Red Raider with a two-out single into centerfield for the first run of the ballgame.

Lesley starter Noah Shaw (Amston, Conn.) was solid for the Lynx but ran into trouble the second time through the Nighthawk line-up. Third baseman Justin MacCutcheon opened the bottom of the third with a laser into the gap between left and center to bring the order back around to the top. Right fielder Matthew Clawson advanced MacCutcheon with a single of his own before Curry became Newbury's new leader in all-time RBIs. The New Hampshire native lined a triple to right to plate both Clawson and MacCutcheon and scored himself on second baseman Jeff Landry's (Vestal, N.Y.) throwing error.

Centerfielder Kyle Schiavone kept the heat on Shaw with a single to left while designated hitter Michael Dean drew a walk. The two Wethersfield, Conn. natives both came around to score two batters later on first baseman Alex Chetelat's base hit. Left fielder Michael Dwyer  completed the seven run, third launching his first collegiate homerun of his career.

Newbury starter Christopher Ninteau earned his team-leading fourth victory of the season, pitching a complete game allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out six Lynx in the process.

Freshman starter Travis Wade (Portland, Maine) toed the rubber in the second game. After allowing a walk to Shah in the first, Wade went on to retire the 10 Lynx batters – seven by way of the strikeout – before giving up the first Lesley hit on a liner up the middle off the bat of Gonzalez.

The Maine southpaw pitched magnificently in game two, keeping the Lynx hitters off balance. After Lesley came back to knot up the contest in the top of the fifth, Wade minimized the damage getting Shah to fly out to Dwyer in left to hold the Lynx to just a run.

In the home half of the contest, the Nighthawks batted around once again. Clawson led off the inning with a base hit then came around to score when Curry broke the all-time hit record with a laser to straightaway center for extra bases. The third year catcher got on his horse and scored the third Newbury run for an inside-the-park homerun.

Newbury continued to add to their lead. After Dwyer reached on a hit-by-pitch and scored on an error by the catcher, shortstop Russell DeMatties kept the inning alive lining a double into left center.  Three batters later second baseman Daniel Kovner drove in DeMatties and Chetelat – who walked two batters prior – with a triple to cap off the five run inning. The Nighthawks added to their lead in the sixth and knocked game two starter Ryan Genua (Prospect, Conn.) out of the ballgame plating three runs.

Wade set a new strikeout record, fanning 11 Lesley hitters, breaking Tomas Matthew's record of 10, set back in the first year of the program against Emerson College on April 14, 2007.

With the win, Newbury improves to 9-9 on the season and 2-3 in the conference while Lesley falls to 0-7 and 0-2 in the NECC. The Nighthawks return to the diamond on Thursday March 31^st when they travel to Fitchburg, Mass. to face Fitchburg State University at 3:30pm.

Game Notes:

Curry and Chetelat also passed William Maddock's all-time record of 125 total bags…The two juniors have 132 and 127 total  bases, respectively.

- Photo by: Samantha Yanofsky