 |  |
Nighthawks Complete Season Sweep of Lynx
Junior starter Jorge Pimentel (Winsted, Conn./The Gilbert School) picked up his second victory of the season pitching six innings, striking out six Lynx as the Newbury College baseball team swept the season series over Lesley University with the 12-3 win Wednesday afternoon.
After Pimentel retired the Lynx in order in the opening frame, second baseman Daniel Kovner (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) took a Noah Shaw (Amston, Conn./Lebanon High) offering to left field for a one-out double. First baseman Patrick Curry (Hampstead, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) drove in Kovner with the first run of the ballgame, placing a double down the right field line.
Following a lead-off walk to designated hitter Kyle Schiavone (Wethersfield, Conn./Wethersfield), Shaw appeared as if he was going to get out the inning unscathed, retiring Joey Herer and shortstop Russell DeMatties (Hamden, Conn./Hamden). Schiavone put the pressure on the Lesley starter swiping second base to get into scoring position. Centerfielder Michael Dwyer (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) put on a good battle against Shaw to stay alive then blooped a two-out single in front of Lynx right fielder, Greg Anglin (Milton, Mass./Milton), as Schiavone scored the second Nighthawk run.
Left fielder Michael Dean (Wethersfield, Conn./Wethersfield) opened up the home half of the fourth scorching a line drive back where it came from and got into scoring position with a steal of second. But Shaw settled down and retired the next two batters. He induced a ground ball to second off the bat of DeMatties but an errant throw from Joseph Santos (Springfield, Mass./Springfield Science Tech) kept the inning alive for the Nighthawks , allowing Dean to score. A batter later, Dywer beat out a slow roller down the third baseline as DeMatties came in the back door with the fourth run but the damage was not over. Turning the line-up back over to the top right fielder Matthew Clawson (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) lined a laser into the right centerfield gap as Dwyer got on his horse and scored from first for the fifth Newbury run.
Lesley finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning. Shaw helped his own cause, turning an infield single into a double with a steal of second. Third baseman Jeff Landry (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) rocketed a base hit into right to plate Shaw then advance to third as the overthrow went to the backstop. Pimental minimized the damage, limiting the Lynx to just one run getting Anglin to ground out to shortstop to end the inning.
The Nighthawks answered and pushed their lead back to five grabbing a run in the bottom half of the fifth. It was a back-and-fourth ball game with Lesley refusing to go away quietly, until the bottom of the eighth.
Newbury put up a crooked number in the home half of the eighth after Lesley scored their third run of the game in the top of the frame. Herer got the inning started reaching on a fielding error by Shah. The Nighthawks made the fourth Lynx miscue of the game hurt as Herer came around to score on a hard-shot double into the left centerfield gap off the bat of DeMatties. Dwyer played heads up ball following his base hit into right field in the next at-bat. Seeing the throw into the infield was going to be high, the Connecticut native kept going and got himself into scoring position as DeMatties moved up a station.
Freshman Pedro Acosta (Brooklyn, N.Y./Forest Hills) pinch-ran for Clawson, who drew a walk to pack the bases with Nighthawks. Still with no outs in the frame, Kovner lined a double just inside the third base bag against new Lesley pitcher, Landry, to drive in Dwyer and DeMatties as Acosta went to third on the play. Newbury’s RBI leader, Curry, added to his team-lead driving a double over the right fielder’s head to plate Acosta and Kovner with the 12th run of the ballgame.
Hrasky pitched two solid innings of relief allowing just one run on three hits while fanning two before freshman Shawn Marcelle (Bristol, Vt./Mt. Abraham Union) came on to shut the door on the Lynx getting Landry and Cory Ducharme (Keene, N.H./Keene) to strike out to end the ballgame.
The Nighthawks improve to 7-6 in the conference and 16-13 overall with the victory while the Lynx fall to 0-10 in the NECC and 0-20 overall. Newbury returns to the diamond on Friday April 22nd when they travel to Leicester, Mass. to face Becker College (17-7, 8-4 NECC). First pitch is scheduled for 3:00pm.
