Baseball Hangs with Endicott but Falls Short in NCAA Regional
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Endicott | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
|
Mitchell | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
HARWICH, Mass. – Mitchell College came up on the short end of a 4-2 final against Endicott College on Thursday afternoon on the second day of play at the 2014 NCAA Baseball Championship Harwich Regional.
Mitchell outhit Endicott 9-6 but failed to come through at key times, stranding a total of eight runners in the contest. Conversely, the Gulls knocked in three of their four runs with two outs on the board.
The Mariners (24-13-1 overall) move to the elimination round and will face the Saint Joseph's College of Maine on Friday at 9:30 a.m. Endicott (32-14 overall) will play the winner of Thursday's final game between Tufts University and the University of Southern Maine.
Starting pitcher Al Jordan Johnson turned in a stellar performance for the Mariners, holding one of the top offenses in New England to four runs (three earned) in a complete-game effort. He threw a total of 142 pitches in the game, including 93 for strikes, and struck out three while walking three.
Marc Dorsi, Kenneth Olszewski and Neftali Arroyo each finished with two hits to lead the Mariners.
Johnson opened the game with a clean first inning but hit trouble in the second. Endicott put two runners on base with no outs, and after the Mariners turned a double play, Steve Morganelli delivered an RBI single to center to plate the game's first run.
The Gulls added a run in the third when Cam Farnham reached on an error and later scored on a bloop single down the left field line by Brett Holmgren. Three Mariners converged on the ball in shallow left but couldn't get there on time.
Mitchell got a run back in the bottom of the third as Gavin LaLima was hit by a pitch and moved into scoring position on a balk. Dorsi followed with a single up the middle to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The Mariners missed out on a scoring chance in the fourth when Arroyo reached base on a two-out single and was awarded second base on another balk by pitcher Zac Poland. The Endicott starter kept his team in front, however, by getting a ground out to end the frame.
Endicott threatened in the sixth thanks to a pair of errors and a fielder's choice that didn't result in an out. Johnson should have been out of the inning easily but instead faced a first-and-third situation with two outs. He escaped damage by getting Chase Sullivan to fly out to left as the score remained 2-1.
A leadoff single by Olszewski in the home half of the sixth chased Poland from the game. A wild pitch by reliever Davarn Nova moved the tying run to second with one out, and after Rafael Garcia drew a walk, the Mariners used a double steal to put both runners in scoring position. However, Nova got a strikeout and ground ball to get out of the jam with the one-run lead intact.
Endicott padded the lead with a pair of runs in the seventh. Cody Hall and Farnham led off the inning with a single and double, respectively, and scored on RBI singles by Harry Oringer and Tad Gold.
Mitchell had an opportunity to close the gap in the seventh after loading the bases with one out behind singles from Will Charkowsky, Blaze Iannetti and Dorsi. A wild pitch resulted in a run for the Mariners and moved the tying run to second base, but Nova settled down and got the Gulls out of the mess with a ground ball to short to end the threat.
Nova set the Mariners down in order in both the eighth and ninth innings to pick up the save. Poland, who lasted 5.0 innings and yielded one run on six hits, improved to 7-0 on the season with the win.
