PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – With home runs by Trevor Bouvier (Salem, N.H.) and Luke Nagle (Pembroke, Mass.), baseball earned a hard fought come-from-behind non-conference win as they defeated SUNY New Paltz for the second time in three days Wednesday afternoon at North Charlotte Regional Park.
For Nagle, his 3-run bomb tied the game at 3-3 in the top half of the third, while Bouvier gave the Beacons their first lead of the day on a solo shot over the right center wall in the fourth.
On the hill senior righty Josh Cummiskey (Lowell, Mass.) picked-up the save after closing out the final 1.2 innings, in which he struckout two, and allowed just one hit. The win went to Alex Carusotto (Pittsfield, Mass.), the first of his career, after he struckout two in 2.1 innings. Starter Harlan Zeerip put together his best showing of the 2015 season so far, as the senior lefty combined for five strike outs over the first four innings.
With the win, the Beacons improved to 3-4 overall, while the Hawks dropped to 2-7 overall following Wednesday's decision.
The Hawks would get all three of their runs in the bottom half of the first inning. After a scoreless second for both teams, Nagle got the Beacons on the board in the big way. On just the second pitch of his at-bat, the junior ripped his third homer in the last three games, down the right field line to tie the game at 3-3.
With a shut down bottom of the third by Zeerip, Bouvier unloaded his biggest hit of the young season over the wall to send the Beacons bench into a frenzy.
The Beacons would threaten in the fifth inning, but would fall just short, and would not plate their next run until the top of the eighth inning. SUNY New Paltz also had their chances, but with some huge defensive stops, including a pair of picked-off runners and a huge caught stealing by catcher Anthony Searles (Shelton, Conn.), the Beacons managed to hang onto their slim lead.
Perhaps the final turning point of the game was when the Beacons turned a huge double play where they not only got the runner at second place, but they also got the runner trying to go home.
In the eighth Bouvier drove in Searles on a groundout to second base, while in the ninth Nagle picked-up his third RBI of the night on a sac-fly to left field.
Moving into the bottom of the ninth, Cummiskey would strikeout the first batter to give the Beacons a huge first out. He would then force a groundout to short, before getting the final batter to fly out to center field to close out the victory.
Freshman Sal Frosceno (Derby, Conn.) finished 2-for-4 at the plate with a run scored, while Nagle finished 2-for-2 with a run scored, three RBI and two walks. Delvis Baez (Lawrence, Mass.) continued to swing a strong bat, as he finished 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Baseball returns to action tomorrow when they take on Farmingdale State University at 11 a.m., followed by a 3 p.m. contest with No. 3 SUNY Cortland. Both games will be played at North Charlotte Regional Park field #6.