Baseball Falls Behind Early, Can't Rally Back at J&W

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Johnson & Wales University baseball team posted a 6-3 victory over Mitchell College in a non-conference contest at Pierce Field on Wednesday afternoon.

After a scoreless first, Johnson & Wales capitalized on a Mitchell miscue to push across five unearned runs in the bottom of the second. The stanza included a two-run double to right center by Matt Newsome and an RBI single by Joe Coppola to give the Wildcats the 5-0 advantage. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Alex Pezzuto led off with a double and came around to score on an RBI groundout by Brian Olofson for the 6-0 lead.

Mitchell got on the board in the top of the seventh when it scored three times, including an RBI double by freshman Evan Peck to make the score 6-3. That would be as close as the Mariners would get, however, as Marc Sommerhalter pitched a flawless eighth and Chris DePalma recorded his third save of the season with a scoreless ninth to give the Wildcats the 6-3 victory.

John Amodeo picked up the win for Johnson & Wales, allowing three runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings of work. Junior Tyler Shultis suffered the loss for Mitchell, giving up four unearned runs on six hits in four innings.

Newsome went 2-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI for JWU while Jack Hocking, Jake Dickerson and Olofson each had two hits in the win for the Wildcats. Peck was 2-for-4 in the loss for Mitchell.

With the victory JWU improved to 9-8 while Mitchell fell to 3-9 on the season. The Mariners return to conference play at Becker College on Saturday, March 31 at noon.