Baseball Soars Into Second Place With Win Over Mariners

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team dropped the rubber game of its series with Becker College by a 10-6 final on Wednesday afternoon.

Becker improved to 11-14 overall and moved into a tie with Mitchell for second place in the conference standings at 7-5. The Hawks and Mariners (12-12 overall) are a game behind Daniel Webster College with three games to play in the regular season. The top team earns the right to host the upcoming 2010 NECC Championship on May 7-9.

Todd Tompkins (West Haven, Conn.) led Becker with a 3-for-4 day at the plate and drove in three runs while scoring twice. Jheremy Brown (Agawam, Mass.) picked up the win on the mound, allowing four runs (one earned) on 12 hits over 6.0 innings. He also struck out two and walked one while evening his record at 2-2.

Junior Jeff Perillo (Newington, Conn.) went 4-for-5 with an RBI for the Mariners, who finished with 14 hits but also committed five errors in the field. Senior Jared Bishop (Moodus, Conn.) drove in a pair of runs and homered for the first time this season. Junior Cody Faddis (Muskogee, Okla.) got the starting nod for Mitchell and threw 5.0 innings, giving up nine runs (four earned) on 11 hits while striking out five and walking two.

Becker jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning with a pair of unearned runs. Keith Kandel (Fresno, Calif.) scored the first run thanks to a throwing error and Tompkins plated the second with a double to right field. The Hawks added another run in the second on an RBI single by Joe Corey (Billerica, Mass.) to take a 3-0 lead.

Bishop hit a two-out home run over the right field fence in the home half of the second to get the Mariners on the scoreboard. Sophomore Tommy Derosier (Brooklyn, Conn.) and junior Paul Martinez (New London, Conn.) followed with back-to-back singles, but Brown worked his way out of trouble without allowing any more damage.

Becker added three runs in the fifth to take a 6-1 lead. LJ Blomgren (Bradenton, Fla.) had an RBI single in the frame while Tony D’Addio (West Haven, Conn.) plated a run with a sacrifice fly to right. Mitchell, however, put up three runs in the bottom of the inning to keep pace. Junior John McGarry (Waterford, Conn.) drove in a run with a single to center and Bishop picked up his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to center.

The Hawks pushed across three more runs in the sixth, two of which scored on a single up the middle by Tompkins. The support would be all Brown would need, and he left the game after six innings with his team in front 9-4.

Mitchell scored a pair of runs off reliever Jeff Dilorenzo (Coventry, R.I.) in the eighth to cut the deficit to 9-6. Perillo drove in a run with a ground out to short before freshman Connor Rochefort (Dayville, Conn.) scored the team’s final run on a wild pitch.

Becker tacked on an insurance run in the ninth on a double to right by D’Addio for his second RBI of the game. Dilorenzo then closed the door in the bottom of the frame to finish off a two-inning relief stint. He allowed two runs—both unearned—on two hits and struck out one. Martinez threw 4.0 innings of relief for the Mariners and gave up one unearned run on one hit.

Becker returns to action at Plymouth State University on Thursday, April 29 at 4 p.m. Mitchell will next host Newbury College for a doubleheader on Saturday, May 1 at noon.