NORTON, MA- Ranked first in the region by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) this week, the Wheaton College baseball team scored 12 unanswered runs to overcome an early 6-0 deficit over the University of Massachusetts at Boston on Tuesday at Sidell Stadium in a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament game.
Winners in 24 of their last 28 games, the Lyons, who are ranked 16th in the country according to today's D3baseball.com poll, improved to 28-8. UMass-Boston fell to 17-19.
In the first four innings alone, the teams combined for 18 runs, 25 hits and five errors. After jumping out to a 6-0 advantage after an inning and a half, the visitors watched Wheaton pile up six runs in the home half of the second, two runs in the third and four more in the fourth.
Eight of the Lyons' starting nine recorded at least one hit, with five notching two or more. Senior Eric Laliberte (Nashua, NH/Bishop Guertin) went 3-for-4 with two runs and a pair of RBI, while sophomore Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH/Gorham) also had three hits with two RBI, a pair of doubles and a run. Senior Hadi Raad (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Hastings) batted 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run.
Senior Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH/Holderness School) pounded out two doubles while scoring three times, and sophomore Dan Gusovsky (Andover, MA/Andover) accounted for two hits, two runs and a homer. Junior Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) plated two and scored two, while classmate Dan Haugh (Andover, MA/Saint John's Prep) drove in two.
On the hill, sophomore righty Frank Holbrook (Middletown, RI/Portsmouth Abbey School) improved to 7-0 despite a slow start, giving up five earned runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts over six innings. Three relievers combined to toss three shutout frames of three-hit ball.
For the Beacons, senior Connor Reinfurt (Manchester, NH/Northfield Mount Hermon School) and junior Mark McCormack (Shelton, CT/Shelton) each went 3-for-5 with a run. McCormack posted two RBI and Reinfurt one. Sophomore Matt Consiglio (Southbury, CT/Pomperaug) added two hits and an RBI, while freshman righty Lucas Ilges (Gloucester, MA/Gloucester) took the loss, allowing eight runs, five earned, on nine hits with two strikeouts and a walk in 2.2 innings.
The Beacons went ahead in the first by scoring their initial run on a throwing error. Consiglio's two-out RBI double made the score 2-0. Four hits in the second led to four more UMass-Boston runs, with McCormack's hard-hit single to second base scoring two.
That lead proved to be short-lived, as Wheaton stormed back to knot the score thanks to six hits and two Beacon miscues in the second. Raad's two-run double put the Lyons on the board, and one RBI each from Haugh, Jensen, Laliberte and senior Sean Munley (Ewing, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) tied things up at six. With Landers bunting and Skelley on third, Wheaton's perfectly-executed suicide squeeze in the third moved the hosts in front for good. Haugh's run-scoring double later in the frame extended the lead to 8-6.
Wheaton faces another UMass school tomorrow when it hosts UMass-Dartmouth at 4:00 p.m. The Lyons posted a 10-3 win over the Corsairs in North Dartmouth last Tuesday.