Baseball Slugs Five Homers in Sweep at NEC
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mitchell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
|
New England Col. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mitchell | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 12 | 1 |
|
New England Col. | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 10 | 3 |
HENNIKER, N.H. -- The Mitchell College baseball team slugged its way to a pair of wins at New England College on Wednesday afternoon, winning by final scores of 5-1 and 15-11 in a clash of the top teams in the New England Collegiate Conference.
The Mariners hit a total of five home runs in the doubleheader, including two by Anthony Diaz in the nightcap. Jakari Pellegrini and Hunter Yaworski also went yard in the contest, and it was a grand slam by Dougie DelaCruz that was the difference in the opener.
With the wins, Mitchell leapfrogged into first place in the NECC standings with only one weekend remaining in the regular season. The Mariners, who improved to 10-2 in conference play, sit a game ahead of the Pilgrims (9-3) after taking three of the four games in the regular season series.
Mitchell (17-6 overall) will next play at Elms College on Saturday, May 1 at noon.
Game 1 -- Mitchell 5, NEC 1
Starters Roland Thivierge and Shaun Cormier kept the game scoreless through the first three innings. NEC finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth when Tyler Gendron connected for a two-out solo homer off Thivierge to make it 1-0.
The lead didn't last for long as the Mariners put up five runs in the fifth. All five runs came with two outs, as Jeremy Sagun tied the game with a single up the middle to score Steve Cochrane. Two batters later, DelaCruz crushed his team-leading sixth homer of the season to plate the final four runs, staking Thivierge and the Mariners to a 5-1 advantage.
Thivierge stranded runners in scoring position in both the fifth and sixth innings before working a clean seventh to pick up his first complete game of the season. He yielded one run on five hits and struck out a career-high 11 batters to improve to 5-0.
Game 2 -- Mitchell 15, NEC 11
Both offenses came to life for the second game as the scoring came early and often. Mitchell lit up the scoreboard with a pair of homers in the first, with Pellegrini hitting a solo shot and Yaworski following with a two-run bomb. NEC responded with six runs in the home half to lead 6-3 after just one inning.
The Pilgrims added to the margin with two runs in the second to take their biggest lead at 8-3. The Mariners cut into the deficit with four runs in the third, two of which scored on a single up the middle by Diaz.
After Anthony Laureano tied the game at 8-8 with an RBI single in the fourth, Diaz hit a grand slam to put Mitchell back on top 12-8, his first homer since 2019. He wouldn't have to wait nearly as long for his next one, as two innings later he went deep again for a two-run blast that made it a 14-9 game. He finished 3-for-3 in the game and knocked in eight runs, one shy of the school record.
Mitchell used five pitchers to nail down the victory, with reliever Kevin Vining earning his first career win with a 2.0-inning stint. Camren Varney also proved key in the decision, entering the game in the fifth inning following a rain delay. He got out of a tight spot by striking out the final two batters of the inning to strand a pair of runners in scoring position, and he went on to close out the game to earn his first save of the season.
