Baseball Completes Sweep of Lesley

NORWICH, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team held on for a 6-4 victory to complete a series sweep of Lesley University on Tuesday night at Dodd Stadium.

The Mariners improved to 12-6 in New England Collegiate Conference play and finished the regular season tied atop the league standings with Becker College. By virtue of its 2-1 record against Becker, Mitchell has earned the right to host the 2014 NECC Championship on May 2-4. A complete bracket with matchups and seeding will be announced by the league once all teams have completed regular season play.

Mitchell carried a 6-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth thanks to strong pitching performances by Al Jordan Johnson and Troy Stango. However, Lesley loaded the bases with only one out and scored three runs with the help of a walk and an error. With the tying run at the plate, Mitchell reliever Axel De Jesus nailed down the win by getting a pop up and strike out to end the game.

Neftali Arroyo and Will Charkowsky each finished with two hits while Gavin LaLima scored a pair of runs and Kenneth Olszewski drove in two runs.

Mitchell pulled ahead 2-0 in the first inning behind a sacrifice fly from Olszewski and an RBI single by Nova Crespo. Lesley got a run back in the second when Mike Slaby reached on an error and later scored on a passed ball.

Another sac fly by Olszewski in the third bumped the Mitchell lead back to two. The Mariners then tacked on two runs in the sixth on an RBI double by Charkowsky and a ground out by Blaze Iannetti. A Lesley error yielded the final Mitchell run in the eighth and made it a 6-1 game heading into the final frame.

After Stango got the first out in the ninth, the Lynx loaded the bases with a single, hit batter and walk to chase him from the game. De Jesus took the ball and walked the first batter he faced to bring in a run, and Lesley added two more thanks to a Mitchell fielding error that made it 6-4. De Jesus settled down, however, and retired the next two batters to close out the victory.

Johnson (2-3 overall) was lights out over his 5.0 innings, allowing only the one unearned run on two hits while striking out nine. Stango was effective through the late innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on two hits and struck out two.

Mitchell will host the NECC Championship for the second time in school history. The Mariners last hosted in 2011 and came away with the tournament title to earn the program's first-ever NCAA berth.

Mitchell (19-11-1 overall) will next play Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday, April 30 at Dodd Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.