Baseball Stumbles in Seventh, Falls 6-4 to MIT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A four-run seventh inning was enough to push No. 3 seed MIT to a 6-4 victory over No. 6 seed Mitchell College in Friday's first round game in the 2013 ECAC Division III New England Baseball Championship at Briggs Field.

Kendall Helbert delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double in the seventh inning that gave MIT the lead for good. The victory was the 25th of the season for the Engineers as they tied the school record for wins in a season. MIT will go on to play Elms College in a semifinal game tomorrow.

Mitchell (23-15-1 overall), making its ECAC debut, got on the board quickly in the contest when sophomore Gavin LaLima singled to lead off the game, moved to second on a sacrifice and then scored on junior Kenneth Olszewski's two-out single to left. MIT (25-11 overall) tied things up in the third when Jon Rea was hit by a pitch and then came around to score on a triple to the gap in right by James McKinney.

Both teams scored in the fourth, with the Mariners seeing junior Marc Dorsi score on a fielder's choice after leading off the inning with a triple. The Engineers answered with a leadoff double from Parker Tew, who eventually scored on a sac fly from Karl Sorensen to tie things back up at 2-2.

Mitchell came back with two more runs in the fifth to go on top again. Freshman Jon Padilla led off with a single, eventually getting to third on a sacrifice and a ground out before Dorsi came up with a two-out RBI single through the right side. He then stole second and came around to score on a base-hit by Olszewski. That chased MIT starter Max Ockner, who went 4.2 innings and gave up four runs on six hits while striking out three and walking one.

Senior Kevin Carbon walked the bases loaded in the fifth, but junior Jeff Dowling came out of the bullpen to get a double-play ball to end the threat. He then retired the side in order in the sixth before running into trouble in the seventh.

With one down Creed Mangrum singled and then McKinney drew a walk to put two on. Hayden Cornwell singled to bring in Mangrum and made it a one-run game. That brought freshman Al Jordan Johnson out of the bullpen, with the Engineers countering the move with Helbert. After a wild pitch moved the runners up, Helbert delivered his double into the right-center gap to put MIT on top, 5-4. Tew later doubled to right with two down to make it 6-4.

Rob Bertucci, who relieved Ockner in the fifth, had runners on base in every inning he pitched, but gave up just one hit and kept the Mariners from adding any more runs. He picked up the win, striking out two and walking just one over his 3.1 innings. Henry Zhu came on in the ninth and gave up a one-out single, but came back to strike out the final two hitters to record his eighth save of the season. Dowling took the loss for Mitchell, giving up three runs in two innings on a pair of hits.

Tew finished 3-for-4 for MIT, driving in one and scoring once. Mangrum had a pair of hits in four trips for the Engineers. Dorsi and Olszewski each had a pair of hits for the Mariners, with Olszewski driving in a pair of runs.

MIT will play No. 7 seed Elms College in a semifinal game tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Tournament host and No. 1 seed Suffolk University will play No. 5 seed Coast Guard in the first semifinal at noon. The two winners will play at noon on Sunday for the championship. All three games will be played at MIT on Briggs Field.