NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team picked up their second consecutive win on Saturday afternoon, holding off the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 5-3, in non-conference action at Alumni Field.
After dropping a pair of games at Kean University to begin the season, the Mariners have opened with back-to-back wins on their home field and have improved to .500 on the season at 2-2.
Senior Eddie Kaftan (Old Lyme, Conn.) notched his first win of the spring, allowing just one earned run across five innings, striking out six. Senior Jadon Canelli (Northford, Conn.) came on in relief and earned his first save of the season, tossing four innings of one-run ball, scattering three hits and striking out five.
The Engineers got on the board first when junior Zev Moore laced an RBI single through the left side in the top of the third inning. The Mariners answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, as senior Michael Gajda (New Britain, Conn.) got things going by blooping a single into shallow centerfield with the bases loaded to tie the game. Junior Thai-ler Sestokas (Danbury, Conn.) followed that up with a run-scoring single into center, before freshman Chase Donahue (Shirley, Mass.) brought home Mitchell's third run on a sacrifice fly.
An error by the Mariners in the top of the fifth allowed MIT to score, trimming their deficit to just one, but a double to deep centerfield off the bat of junior Michael Ficocelli (North Providence, R.I.) pushed the Mariners back on top by two, 4-2. Two innings later, a wild pitch gave Mitchell another insurance run, before MIT freshman John Spivey belted the first home run of his collegiate career to cap the scoring in the eighth.
Ficocelli, Gajda, and junior Nicholas Bracale (East Haven, Conn.) had two hits apiece for the Mariners. Ficocelli doubled and Gajda tripled for Mitchell, who were outhit 10-8 in the game.
Zev Moore turned in a 3-4 day at the plate for MIT, driving in one. CJ McCarthy had two hits and a run scored, while Spivey went 1-4 with a homer.
Junior Matthew Spenner got the start for MIT and twirled three no-hit innings with one walk and four strikeouts. Fellow junior Chase Rubin came on in relief and was charged with the loss after coughing up four runs (three earned) over three innings of work.
The Mariners (2-2, 0-0 GNAC) return to action on Tuesday, March 4, when they host Eastern Connecticut State University in a non-league clash at 3:00 pm. The Engineers (0-1, 0-0 NEWMAC) will look to bounce back when they play at UMass-Boston on Tuesday, March 4.