NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team pounded out a season-high 33 hits—including eight home runs—in a 32-7 win over Lesley University on Friday afternoon.

Every Mitchell starter had a hit, drove in a run and scored in the contest. Senior Jeff Perillo went 4-for-6 and crushed three homers on the day to finish with five RBI. Junior John Apostolo drove in six runs and went 4-for-6 with two homers and a double. He extended his league-leading home run total to nine on the season.

Freshman Anthony Santiago and senior Drew Rossi each had five hits in the contest. Mitchell slugged a total of 17 extra-base hits in the game, with Rossi and junior Gus Maclao finishing with three doubles apiece.

The win pushed the Mariners (18-6-1 overall, 13-2 NECC) to within one game of clinching the top spot in the NECC standings. The first-place team will earn the right to host next weekend's NECC Championship.

Ryan Genua led the Lynx (0-25 overall, 0-15 NECC) with three hits while Jeff Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with a RBI. Starting pitcher Jeff Landry took the loss and gave up 18 runs on 18 hits in 5.1 innings.

The Mariners, who batted as the visiting team, sent nine hitters to the plate in the first inning and took an early 5-0 lead. Perillo took the first pitch of the game over the center field fence to put Mitchell on the scoreboard. Apostolo also hit a two-run bomb in the frame. The Mariners then batted around again in the second inning and plated six more runs to go up 11-1.

Lesley trailed 14-3 after four innings but cut the deficit to seven with a four-run fifth. Joseph Marcinko and Nick Dolan each delivered two-out RBI singles to keep the Lynx in the mix.

Mitchell broke the game wide open in the top of the sixth, slamming four home runs and a total of 10 hits to score 11 runs in the inning. Apostolo and junior Felix Colarte hit back-to-back homers in the frame, and senior John McGarry and Perillo later followed with back-to-back shots of their own.

Perillo delivered his third home run of the game in the seventh inning, a three-run blast that was his sixth long ball of the season. Sophomore Osmer Collado also jacked a two-run blast in the inning as Mitchell went up 32-7.

Sophomore Kevin Carbon made his first career conference start and tossed 5.0 innings to earn the win. He gave up seven runs (five earned) on eight hits while striking out four and walking one. Freshman Nick Braunreuther hurled 4.0 shutout innings to close the game and struck out five while allowing two hits.

Mitchell wraps up the regular season with a three-game series at Southern Vermont College this weekend, beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 30 at noon.