Baseball Swings to Series Sweep at Elms
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mitchell | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 16 | 4 |
|
Elms | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 1 |
HOLYOKE, Mass. – The Mitchell College baseball team completed a three-game sweep at Elms College on Sunday with an 11-5 victory in the series finale at MacKenzie Stadium.
Elms' Donald Morse delivered a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth, but Mitchell junior John Apostolo was 5-for-5 with four RBI on the day to help the Mariners secure the victory. Mitchell improved to 15-5-1 overall and remained atop the NECC standings with a conference mark of 10-2. Elms dropped to 9-15 overall and 2-7 in league play.
Trailing 11-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Elms' catcher Carm Bonavita was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a two-base error on a fielder's choice by Alex King and the scored on a single by Brendan Cordeiro to set the score at 11-3. Two batters later, Morse delivered his two-run single to pull Elms to within six at 11-5, but that was as close as it would get as Mitchell reliever Drew Rossi fanned the next batter and forced a fly out to end the game.
Mitchell starter Jon Blair tossed seven quality innings highlighted by six strikeouts to earn the win and improve to 4-1 on the season. Elms left-hander Andrew Bunger whiffed four batters in the losing effort and fell to 2-2 overall on the hill.
Mitchell took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when freshman Anthony Santiago laced a one-out double and then scored on a ripped single to left field by Apostolo. Bunger then tossed a strikeout and forced a groundout to end the inning.
Elms responded with a run in the bottom of the second inning when Reynaldo Rivera reached on an error to start the frame and then advanced to third when Anthony Pagano and Zachary Dreher connected for back-to-back singles to load the bases. Bonavita then lifted a sacrifice fly to right field sending Rivera home with the game-tying run. Dreher then stole second, but Blair issued a strikeout and induced an inning-ending fly out to keep the score knotted at 1-1.
The Mariners struck for three in the top of the third when senior Jeff Perillo and Santiago led off the stanza with consecutive base hits. Apostolo then belted a bases-clearing triple to right center field to give Mitchell a 3-1 lead. A groundout by Felix Colarte plated another run and extended the lead to 4-1 before Elms was able to get out of the jam without further damage.
Mitchell tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth when sophomore Osmer Collado singled, advanced to second on a walk to Angel Chacon and then raced to third when Rossi advanced the runners on a sacrifice bunt. Santiago then delivered a two-run two-bagger, stole third and came full circle on a run-scoring single by Apostolo to give the Mariners a 7-1 lead.
Mitchell plated two more in the top of the sixth inning when Colarte was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and junior Gus Maclao drove in a run on a fly out to shallow right field to lift the Mariners' lead to 9-1.
Elms put a run across in the bottom of the seventh inning when King led off with a single, moved to second when Brendan Cordeiro reached on an error and then moved to third on a wild pitch. Nicolino Iavicoli followed with a RBI single that allowed King to score and cut the Blazers' deficit to 9-2.
Mitchell got the run back in the top of the eighth frame when Santiago was hit by a pitch with one out and later scored when Apostolo singled and got caught in a rundown trying to advance to second. The Mariners added their final tally in the top of the ninth when Chacon hit an RBI single to drive in senior Carlos Hughes, who walked to lead off the frame.
Brendan Cordeiro, Morse, Dreher and Stephen Fisher each collected two hits in the losing effort for the Blazers, while relievers Derek Leal and John Russell tossed a scoreless inning each.
Apostolo and Santiago fueled the Mitchell offense all weekend long. Apostolo batted .769 with nine RBI in the series and finished with three extra-base hits. Santiago scored a team-high 10 runs and batted .692 over the three games. He doubled in every game of the series and also had five RBI.
