Baseball Edged in Pair of One-Run Games at Elms

HOLYOKE, Mass. – The Mitchell College baseball team came up on the short end of a pair of one-run games on Saturday afternoon at Elms College, falling by scores of 6-5 and 5-4 in a New England Collegiate College doubleheader at MacKenzie Stadium.

Elms' Donny Morse went a combined 3-for-5 at the plate with four RBI and Steve Fisher notched his 100th career hit to help spark the Blazers. With the wins, Elms improved to 10-15 on the season and 6-4 in NECC play. Mitchell fell to 5-15 overall 4-7 in league action.

The sides will play a single, nine-inning game on Sunday, April 15 in New London, Conn. at 2:00 p.m. 
 
Game 1 - Elms 6, Mitchell 5
 
Mitchell got off to a fast start, plating three runs in the top of the first frame on the strength of an RBI single by junior Will Charkowski and a two-run double by to right field off the bat of senior Ethan Graynor. Junior Tyler Shultis drove in a pair of runs in the top of the third inning to extend Mitchell's lead to 5-0.
 
Elms answered with three runs in the bottom of the third frame when Morse singled in Nico Iavicoli, while a pair of runs scored on Mariners' miscues allowing the Blazers to pull to within two at 5-3. Felix Montalvo then scored on an error in the bottom of the fourth, before the Blazers used a pair of bases-loaded RBI walks to Alex King and Morse to give Elms a 6-5 lead.
From there, reliever Ryan Burnette was able to keep the Mariners off the board and preserve the win, pitching two scoreless innings to improve to 2-3 on the season. Mitchell starter Justin Lemanski suffered the loss and dropped to 2-3 overall.
 
Montalvo and Andrew Kravontka added two hits each for the Blazers in the win. 
 
Game 2 - Elms 5, Mitchell 4
 
Mitchell again got off to a quick start as freshman Evan Peck singled in classmate Nick Carlson and later scored on an error to give the Mariners a 2-0 advantage. Elms then cut the lead in half as Iavicoli ripped a two-out double and later scored on a single to left by Morse in the bottom of the first to set the score at 2-1.
 
After trading runs in the third inning, Elms plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth as Montalvo cranked a triple to right-center field that scored Zach Dreher. Kravontka added an RBI single and Iavicoli earned an RBI free pass to give the Blazers a 5-3 edge.
 
The Mariners plated a run in the top of the seventh when Carlson doubled, moved to third on a fly out and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Charkowsky to cut the deficit to 5-4. But Elms reliever Derek Leal, who entered the game in the top of the seventh for reliever Andrew Bunger, tossed a strikeout to end the game and sealed his third save of the season. 
 
Elms starter Curtis LeBeau pitched 5.1 innings to earn the win while Mitchell starter Mike Sturges suffered the loss.
 
Carlson connected for three hits to lead the Mariners in defeat, while Kravontka added two hits for Elms.