Baseball Sews Up Top Seed at Daniel Webster

NASHUA, N.H. -- The Mitchell College baseball team clinched the top seed in the upcoming New England Collegiate Conference Championship with a doubleheader sweep of Daniel Webster College on Monday afternoon at Harvey Woods Field.

The Mariners, who won by 15-0 and 10-1 finals, wrapped up conference play with a record of 14-4. Mitchell has earned the right to host the conference tournament for the fourth straight season. The three-day, double-elimination tournament is slated for May 5-7.

A pair of freshmen picked up wins on the hill for the Mariners. Jakari Pellegrini tossed a four-hit shutout in the opener while Connor Dulin earned his first career victory with 4.0 shutout innings in the nightcap.

Game 1 - Mitchell 15, Daniel Webster 0

Mitchell scored the only runs it would need in the top of the third inning on sacrifice flies by Francis Prettitore and Garet Griffin. The Mariners tacked on another run in the fourth but broke the game open late, scoring four in the sixth and eight more in the seventh. 

Griffin went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI in the game. Kyle Hartenstein, Markus Melendez and Steven Pagan each supplied a pair of hits.

Pellegrini faced only 23 batters in the contest and allowed only one runner past first base. The lefty struck out one batter and didn't issue a walk to improve to 2-2 on the season.

Game 2 - Mitchell 10, Daniel Webster 1

The second game was scoreless until the fourth inning when Mitchell went on top behind an RBI triple by Tyler Pina, who later scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0. The Mariners added single runs in the next two innings to double the lead, as Hartenstein stole third in the fifth and scored on a wild throw, and Rolando Marcano plated Pina in the sixth with a sac fly.

Mitchell once again hit it big in the seventh, scoring six runs to open up a 10-0 lead. Pina supplied a two-run single to get things started, Jack Finnegan and Pagan each knocked in runs with back-to-back singles to center, and Steven Gonzalez capped the rally with an RBI single to left.

Dulin allowed four hits and struck out three over 4.0 innings of work. Justin Lawson, Brian Stanczuk and Antonio Cancel all tossed an inning of relief to close out the game. The Eagles scored their lone run in the bottom of the seventh that was aided by three Mitchell fielding errors.