NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – The Newbury College baseball team dropped the rubber game of the three-game series against Elms College, 8-2, Sunday night. Blazer senior right-hander Tom Weldon (Springfield, Mass.) tied his season-high striking out 10 to earn his, conference leading, eighth victory of the year.
Elms wasted little time jumping on the scoreboard early, pushing across two runs in the first and second innings against Newbury sophomore right-hander Jake Pringle (Acushnet, Mass.). Two inning later, the Blazers took advantage of a Nighthawk miscue, adding to their two-run lead scoring twice in the top of the fourth to take the 4-0 lead.
After Pringle retired the first two batters in the top of the fourth, junior Tim Gelzinis (North Dighton, Mass.) kept the inning alive, fighting for a two-out walk. Sophomore outfielder Andy Vasquez (Queens, N.Y.) reached on an three bases error after hitting a high fly ball to right field to bring in Gelzinis for the third Blazer run. Two batters later, Vasquez came into score himself for the fourth run on a base-hit to left field off the bat of senior shortstop Nolan Medeiros (Taunton, Mass.).
However, in the home half of the frame, junior second baseman C.J. Ingraham (Georgetown, Mass.) worked a walk to open the inning to bring the meat of the order to the dish with no outs. Senior third baseman Ryan Zahornasky (Shelton, Conn.) laced a line drive over the right-field fence for his fourth homerun of the season and cut the Blazer deficit in the half, 4-2.
It remained a two-run ballgame for before the Blazers added four insurance runs in the top of the ninths. Sophomore Jim McGrorry (Oakhurst, N.J.) tossed a scoreless three innings of relief of Pringle before running into trouble in the ninth, giving up four runs as Elms to the 8-2 advantage.
The six-run cushion was plenty for Weldon allowing just two runs on four hits while striking out 10 to remain perfect on the season, improving to 8-0.
Pringle takes the loss, dropping him to 2-3 following the loss after allowing four runs – two earned – on five hits while striking out four.
Newbury drops to 10-14 on the season and 1-8 in the conference while Elms improves to 24-7 and 7-4 in NECC action. The Nighthawks return to the diamond Tuesday evening when they travel to Nashua, N.H. to face non-conference Rivier University. First pitch is slated for 7:00 p.m.
Game Notes:
Senior third baseman Ryan Zahornasky's (Shelton, Conn.) fourth inning homerun was his NECC leading, fourth of the season and is currently one shy of tying the program's single-season record (5)… Additionally he also leads the conference in RBI with 25 on the season is now eight RBI shy of 100 in his collegiate career and nine of the program's record…