NORTON, MA- The top-seeded Wheaton College baseball team overcame a 3-1 deficit by scoring six unanswered runs en route to a 7-3 victory over fourth seed United States Coast Guard Academy during Wednesday's opening round of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament at Sidell Stadium.

The Lyons will host third-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Friday at 3:30 p.m., when Coast Guard travels to number-two Babson College in an elimination game.  Wheaton, which is ranked 21st nationally and second in New England, won for the 20th time in its last 23 games to improve to 24-7.  Coast Guard fell to 19-14.

Wheaton pounded out 16 hits, as each starter recorded at least one base knock.  Senior Hadi Raad (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Hastings) went a perfect 4-for-4 with two runs, a pair of doubles, one triple and an RBI.  Junior Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) was 4-for-5 with three runs and an RBI, while senior Eric Laliberte (Nashua, NH/Bishop Guertin) went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Sophomore Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH/Gorham) plated three runs, senior Sean Munley (Ewing, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) drove in a run, and junior Dan Haugh (Andover, MA/Saint John's Prep) drew two intentional walks while notching his career-best 18th double. 

Collecting his sixth straight win, junior Nolan Corr (Somersworth, NH/Saint Thomas Aquinas) allowed three earned runs on six hits while fanning three with no walks in seven-plus innings.  Senior Kevin Calabro (Andover, MA/Andover) and junior David Longley (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) each tossed a shutout frame in relief.

Coast Guard sophomore Mike Massaro (Sewell, NJ/William Penn Charter School) went 2-for-4, while six other Bears posted one hit apiece.  Senior hurler Jesse Karr (Milan, MI/Milan) took the loss, surrendering seven earned runs while striking out three and fanning three in seven innings.

Wheaton plated the game's first run in the first when Jensen scored Landers on a sacrifice fly to center.  The Lyons looked to add another run on Haugh's two-bagger but instead got caught in a rundown between third and home and tagged out.  The Bears made the score 3-1 in the second after stringing together three hits coupled with a Wheaton error.

The Lyons attempted to score their second run on another double in the home half of the second, this time off the bat of Raad, but the visitors gunned down a runner at the plate to keep the margin at two.  After a Coast Guard batter reached base on another Lyon miscue with one down in the third followed by a Bear single, Corr induced an inning-ending double play before retiring eight batters in a row.

Munley's run-scoring double in the third narrowed Wheaton's deficit to one before the Lyons took the lead for good the following frame, using four hits to push three runs across for a 5-3 lead.  Jensen provided the big blow with a two-RBI double down the left field line.  Landers brought around the hosts' sixth run during a three-hit sixth.