Big First Inning Guides Wheaton Baseball to 6-5 Win Over MIT

Recap, photo courtesy of Wheaton College

NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College baseball team edged out the MIT Engineers, 6-5, on Friday in game one of the three-game New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) series.

The win improves the Lyons to 24-7 on the season and 13-2 in conference competition, while the Engineers move to 16-10 overall and 12-3 in NEWMAC play. Wheaton is currently ranked first in the NEWMAC, while MIT holds the No. 2 spot.

The Lyons put their first two runners on in the first on a walk and a base hit. The first of three MIT
errors in the inning loaded the bases for senior Justin Silvestro who singled to right to bring in the first run of the game and then advanced to second on an error in the MIT outfield that allowed a second run to score. After a ground out, Tyler Walsh delivered a two-run single to right to make it 4-0. He later came around to score on a sac fly to give the Lyons a 5-0 cushion.

MIT chipped away at the score in the fourth inning when the Engineers put runners on second and third courtesy of a hit batter and a double off the bat of David Heller. A pair of groundouts, by Kendall Helbert and Eric Tu, scored the runners to make it a one-run game.

In the sixth inning, Wheaton pushed across what proved to be the winning run, getting things started on a lead-off single by Jared Sharkey. A sacrifice, a single and a stolen base put runners at second and third for the Lyons. Joshua LaJoie then brought in Sharkey with a groundout to short.

Wheaton's bullpen then did the rest, Michael Baryski put down MIT in order in the eighth and Eric Dumas struck out the side in the ninth to record his 12^th save. Dan Southerland was the starter for the Lyons and picked up the victory, going six innings.