No. 1 Baseball Cruises Past No. 8 Elms to Open GNAC Tournament Pod Play
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Elms | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
|
Mitchell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | X | 7 | 11 | 1 |
NEW LONDON, Conn. – The top-seeded Mitchell College baseball team opened pod play in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Baseball Tournament by cruising past No. 8 Elms College, 7–1, on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Field.
With the win, the Mariners (25-12, 16-4 GNAC) advance to the winner's bracket of Pod A and will face the winner of Friday's game between No. 4 Dean College and No. 5 Colby-Sawyer College on Saturday at 12:00 p.m., following the morning elimination game.
The Mariners struck first in the opening inning when junior Michael Ficocelli (North Providence, R.I.) lifted a sacrifice fly to plate sophomore Ryan Dennis (Ellington, Conn.) for a 1–0 lead. Mitchell broke the game open in the fourth, scoring three times behind a two-run single from junior Christopher Piscione (Cranston, R.I.) and a sacrifice fly by freshman Angel Rodriguez Cruz (Cidra, P.R.).
Mitchell added two more runs in the sixth inning on RBI singles from senior Kenneth Miller Jr. (New London, Conn.) and junior Jayden Sgro (Glastonbury, Conn.) to extend the lead to 6–0. Elms got on the board in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Nason Busca, but the Mariners answered in the eighth with an RBI single by Dennis to cap the scoring.
The Mariners finished with 11 hits in the contest, led by Dennis, seniors Chas Terni Jr. (Montville, Conn.) and Nicholas Bracale (East Haven, Conn.), and Miller Jr., who each recorded two hits. Piscione drove in a pair of runs, while six different players recorded an RBI in a balanced offensive effort.
On the mound, senior Thai-ler Sestokas (Danbury, Conn.) earned the win to improve to 7-1, tossing 5.0 scoreless innings while allowing four hits and striking out two. Senior Dom Yarson (Ewing, N.J.) followed with 3.0 innings of relief, allowing one run while striking out four, and senior Jacob Quiles (Wallkill, N.Y.) closed the door with a scoreless ninth.
Elms totaled nine hits, with Colin Faber collecting three hits and Busca driving in the lone run. Jayden Maynard took the loss after allowing six runs on nine hits over 6.0 innings.
The Blazers will look to stave off elimination on Saturday morning when they face the loser of Friday's game between Dean and Colby-Sawyer, with an 8:30 a.m. first pitch at Mitchell College.
