There is a saying in baseball that 'good pitching will beat good hitting' and it lived up to its meaning this afternoon on the final day of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship.
The Nighthawks came into the conference tournament hitting .306 as a team. However, solid pitching by the Eagles of Daniel Webster College was able to quell the potent Nighthawk bats en route to the 6-2 victory Sunday afternoon to claim the 2012 crown and grab the first automatic qualifer into the NCAA Tournament.
Although the season did not end the way they would have preferred, the 2012 Newbury College baseball still did something that no other team did, in the history of the program. They made it to the conference title game. A long way from where the program was just four years ago when these seniors were freshmen.
Senior right-hander Jorge Pimentel (Winsted, Conn.), who pitched the Nighthawks in to the title game with a complete game win over Elms in Saturday's elimination game, led three Nighthawks to be named to the All-Tournament Team.
Junior right fielder Matthew Clawson (Tolland, Conn.) had an outstanding championship weekend. He kicked off the weekend with a four-for-five afternoon with four RBIs and earned his conference leading fifth save of the season in an 8-6 victory against Becker College that propelled them into the winner's bracket. Overall, in the tournament he hit an impressive .421 clip with his first homerun of the season and five RBIs for a 1.000 OPS.
The other Nighthawk corner outfielder, sophomore Michael Dwyer (Hamden, Conn.) rounded out the trio on the All-Tournament Team. The Hamden, Conn. native was the sparkplug atop the Nighthawk order recording an impressive .421 on-base percentage while hitting .313 with an RBI in four games.
After sophomore southpaw Travis Wade (Portland, Maine) retired the side in order in the top of the first, the Nighthawks threatened to get on the board first in the bottom of the frame. Dwyer lined a sizzler back where it came from before moving up 90 feet on chopper just to the right of shortstop Rich Lizotte (New City, N.Y.) to bring the heart of the order to the plate.
However, the Nighthawks were unable to capitalize on the two early hits. Daniel Webster right hander Korey LeLievre (Hudson, N.H.) induced a double-play off the bat of Newbury senior backstop Patrick Curry (Hampstead, N.H.). Two batters later when the Nighthawks were threatening with runners at the corners LeLievre got fellow senior Michael Dean(Wethersfield, Conn.) to line out to second for the final out of the frame.
The Eagles finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth when junior centerfielderJosh Chasse (Milford, N.H.) lined a base hit up the middle. He came around to score on ground ball to the right side of the infield off the bat of first year third baseman Kyle Brigham(Pelham, N.H.).
Chasse continued to keep the pressure on the Nighthawks launching his first homerun of season an inning later. With two outs in the top of the fourth and two on, Chase hit a high-towering fly ball to left field and when it came down the Eagles had a 4-0 lead.
Newbury finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth inning. After LeLievre hit Curry, senior first baseman Alex Chetelat (Farmington, Conn.) lined a base-hit up the middle. Dean kept the inning going, loading the bases with an opposite field single. First year third baseman Steven Broy (Gorham, Maine) grounded into double play but in the back door came Dwyer to put Newbury on the scoreboard.
After the Eagles pushed across two more runs in the top of the eighth to extend their lead to 6-1, the Nighthawks still continued to claw back getting a run in bottom of the inning. Chetelat laced a one-out double into the left-centerfield gap that just barely missed being his 15th career homerun then advance then advance to third on a single by Dean.
Pinch-hitting for second baseman Cameron D'Agostino (Salisbury, Mass.), senior Joey Herer(Needham, Mass.), who was 1-for-1 against LeLievre earlier this season, loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch. Moments later, Daniel Webster catcher Tyler Bonin (Litchfield, N.H.) was unable to handle an errant pitch from LeLievre allowing Chetelat to score the second Newbury run.
But it was not enough. Daniel Webster was getting the timely hits in addition to an outstanding pitching performance from LeLievre. Being named as one of the Eagles' three All-Tournament Team representatives, LeLievre picked up his fifth win of the season, improving to 5-3 while striking out four Nighthawks to send Daniel Webster to the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Games Notes:
Junior right hander Zach Griesche (Niskayuna, N.Y.) came on in relief of Wade in the fifth inning and tossed four innings allowing just one earned run on three hits while striking out four Eagles.