DelaCruz Walkoff Sends Top-Seeded Baseball Past Lesley in NECC Tournament Opener
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lesley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 |
|
Mitchell | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 0 |
NEW LONDON, Conn. – Mitchell College senior Dougie DelaCruz (Uncasville, Conn.) belted a walkoff solo home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday afternoon, powering the top-seeded Mariner baseball team past fourth-seeded Lesley University 3-2 in the opening game of the NECC tournament.
DelaCruz, who finished 3-5 with one RBI and one run scored, found himself behind in the count 1-2 before jumping on an inside breaking ball delivered by Lesley junior Logan Watts, sending the ball soaring over the left field fence.
Up until that moment, the Lynx had battled with the Mariners over the first eight and a half innings, proving to be a much tougher out than in any of their four meetings so far this spring, in which Mitchell outscored Lesley 28-7.
With senior started Eddie Kaftan (Old Lyme, Conn.) on the mound, the Mariners got out to an early lead when Matt Falk (Enfield, Conn.) drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third. Freshma Thai-ler Sestokas (Danbury, Conn.) made it 2-0 in favor of the home team the following inning with a double into right field.
The Lynx knotted the score in the fifth, tagging Kaftan for a pair of runs when Adam Budorick laced a two-run ringle into centerfield.
The Lynx looked in position to make a move in the top of the ninth when Christian McElroy led off the frame with a bunt single, but Mitchell's Kenny Heon (Uncasville, Conn.) got the next batter to line out and followed that up by inducing a double play ball in the infield.
Heon picked up the win, tossing two and two third innings of two-hit ball out of the bullpen. Kaftan, who worked six and one third innings was charged with two runs and eight hits, striking out four and walking just one batter.
Freshman Roy Lenhard got the start for Lesley and worked five innings of two-run ball, scattering 10 hits and collecting three strikeouts.
Sophomore Bo Yaworski (Brooklyn, Conn.) also had three hits on the day, while Angel Galindez (Carolina PR) went 2-5 with a double and a run scored, Owen Robbins (East Lyme, Conn.) added a double of his own, and Justin Adorno (New Britain, Conn.) finished 2-4 with a run scored.
Budorick, Andrew Gryniewicz, and Christian McElroy each had multi-hit games for Lesley in the loss.
The Mariners (29-8 overall) will face third-seeded New England College at 12:00 pm tomorrow in New London, after the Pilgrims were 10-7 winners over second-seeded Eastern Nazarene College in the second game of the NECC tournament.
All games in the NECC baseball tournament are hosted by Mitchell College.
