FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Mitchell College baseball team picked up a pair of conference wins on Friday, winning by final scores of 11-5 and 6-0 against Newbury College in a New England Collegiate Conference doubleheader played at the Cusic Classic.
The Mariners (3-0 overall, 2-0 NECC) rode strong pitching performances by Al Jordan Johnson and Tyler Shamas in their season debuts. The duo yielded only five hits and no earned runs on the day and struck out a combined 10 batters. Mitchell also busted out at the plate, recording 14 hits in the opener and 12 more in the night cap.
Game 1 – Mitchell 11, Newbury 5
Mitchell fell behind 1-0 in the second inning after an error in the field resulted in Newbury's first run. The Mariners got it right back in the top of the third, as Gavin LaLima set the table with a one-out triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Kenneth Olszewski.
A Mitchell error led to another Newbury run in the home half of the third, but the Mariners tied it up once again in the fourth behind consecutive doubles by Ryan Goodwin and Kyle Hartenstein.
Mitchell broke the game open with a four-run fifth inning in which Drew Doyle plated a run with a triple and Hartenstein doubled home another. The Mariners kept the pressure on in the sixth and added five more runs to make it 11-2. Doyle drove in a run with a sacrifice fly while Goodwin added a RBI single and Hartenstein contributed his third double of the game.
Johnson went 5.0 innings before turning the ball over to the Mitchell bullpen. He gave up only two hits and struck out four while walking five. Eddie Santiago pitched a clean sixth inning before Newbury hit up Evan McClain for three runs in the seventh, but by then it was too late.
Hartenstein finished 3-for-4 with three doubles and four RBI in the contest while Goodwin and Rafael Garcia also enjoyed three-hit days. The Mariners touched up the Nighthawks for eight extra-base hits in the game and took advantage of five errors.
Game 2 – Mitchell 6, Newbury 0
Shamas turned in a stellar performance to record his third career shutout, striking out six while walking one over 7.0 innings. He didn't allow a hit until the fourth and gave up only three hits in total. Six Newbury batters reached base but no runner made it past second base.
The Mariners gave Shamas the lead right out of the gate, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning to seize control. With runners at second and third and two outs, Goodwin delivered a two-run single to make it a 3-0 game.
Mitchell picked up a run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Goodwin, and a two-run single by Olszewski bumped the lead to 6-0 in the sixth. That was more than enough for Shamas, who struck out a pair of batters in the seventh to seal the victory.
Goodwin knocked in three runs in the game while Olszewski went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a stolen base.
