New London, CT --- Coast Guard scored six runs in the eighth inning of the opener and sophomore Brett Sullivan (Granby, MA) fired his first career shutout in the nightcap as the Bears swept a NEWMAC doubleheader from WPI 7-2 and 4-0.
Coast Guard snapped an 11-game losing streak and won its first NEWMAC game of the season with the game one win and the Bears are now 8-15 overall and 2-10 in the conference while WPI drops to 11-17 overall and 3-11 in the NEWMAC.
The Bears rallied for six runs in the bottom of the eighth beat WPI 7-2. Coast Guard tied the game when junior Jeremy Lhotka (Orange Park, FL) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Junior Luke Thompson's (San Ramon, CA) RBI single gave the Bears a 3-2 lead before senior Alex Murdoch's (San Ramon, CA) RBI single pushed the lead to 4-2. Sophomore Jon Pressley (Austin, TX) added a two-run single giving Coast Guard a 6-2 lead before Murdoch came around with the seventh Coast Guard run.
Junior Ryan Tropeano's (Pembroke, MA) RBI single in the seventh gave WPI a 2-1 lead before the Bears eighth inning eruption.
Freshman Lukas Caskey (Frisco, TX) (1-0) picked up his first collegiate win in relief as he worked the final 1 2/3 inning and allowed just one hit and walked one batter. Junior Dustin Reeder (Lincoln, DE) pitched 7 1/3 quality innings as he scattered seven hits and allowed a pair of earned runs while walking four and fanning five.
Senior Steven D'Agostino (Worcester, MA) (3-5) took the loss for WPI. He worked 7 1/3 innings and allowed eight hits, six runs (five earned) while walking one and striking out eight.
Junior Jake Behne (Clifton, VA), Lhotka and Murdoch each had two hits in the win for Coast Guard. Tropeano had two hits for the Engineers.
Sullivan (3-4) threw his first career shutout scattering eight hits, walking two and striking out four to lead the Bears to the sweep.
Sophomore David Larson (Port Tobacco, MD) (1-3) pitched seven solid innings for WPI allowing just two hits and a pair of unearned runs while walking four and fanning six.
Tropeano and junior Josh Herlands (Glastonbury, CT) each had two hits in game two for WPI. Coast Guard had just four hits in the game two win.
Sophomore Alex Cordes' (Delray Beach, FL) RBI single in the first gave the Bears a 1-0 lead and Murdoch's RBI ground out in the fourth pushed the lead to 2-0.
The Bears added two insurance runs in the eighth on an RBI double by Lhotka before and RBI groundout by Pressley plated the final run of the game.
Coast Guard is back in action on Tuesday when the Bears travel to MIT for a NEWMAC game at 3:30.
Release Courtesy Coast Guard Sports Information