Baseball Eliminated by Saint Joseph's at NCAA Regional
HARWICH, Mass. – Mitchell College saw its time in the 2014 Division III New England Baseball Regional Championship come to an end with a 9-2 loss to Saint Joseph's College of Maine on Friday morning at Whitehouse Field.
For the second straight day the Mariners (24-14-1 overall) failed to capitalize with runners on base, as SJC starting pitcher Joe Gruntkosky didn't allow a run over the first seven innings. The Monks (30-14 overall) broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning that bumped a three-run lead to seven. Alex Lorenc went 4-for-5 with a double, homer and three RBI to lead the Saint Joseph's offense.
After retiring the Monks in order on nine pitches in the first, Tandy faced a first-and-third situation in the second but got a lazy fly ball to center to end the threat. Mitchell put two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the frame but came away empty. However, the Mariners had several long at bats and drove Gruntkosky's pitch count up to 49 after two innings.
Tandy worked a quick and clean third inning before the Monks got to him for a run in the fourth. Lorenc led off with a hit up the middle that ricocheted off the bag and ended up in into shallow left-center. He used the fortuitous bounce to turn a single into a double, and after moving to third on a ground out, Lorenc scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Taylor Reuillard.
Mitchell squandered an opportunity in the fourth, leaving the tying run standing on second base. Saint Joseph's didn't make the same mistake in the fifth, cashing in with a pair of RBI singles from Lorenc and Nic Lops to extend the lead to 3-0. A heads-up play in the field by second baseman Blaze Iannetti prevented another run for the Monks, as he scooped up an infield single and threw behind the runner rounding third that resulted in a force out at the plate.
Jeff Dowling and Iannetti led off the Mitchell fifth with back-to-back singles to set the table for the top of the lineup. Gruntkosky worked out of the jam by getting two fly balls to center, the second of which resulted in a double play as Dowling was running with the pitch and couldn't get back to the bag in time.
A pair of errors proved costly for the Mariners in the sixth as the Monks sent nine players to the plate and pushed across four runs. Two runs scored due to the miscues while Louie Vigars and Lops each knocked in runs to extend the margin to 7-0.
Lorenc added a two-out, two-run homer in the eighth before the Mariners got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Goodwin plated the first run with a sac fly to right and Will Charkowsky followed with an RBI single to right-center.
Tandy (5-3 overall) lasted into the sixth, allowing seven runs (five earned) on 12 hits while striking out two. Troy Stango and Axel De Jesus each saw action in relief. Gruntkosky (6-0 overall) surrendered two runs on 12 hits and struck out six in 7.2 innings of work.