NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team smacked a season-high five home runs in an 18-5 victory over Middlebury College on Sunday afternoon in non-conference action.
After falling behind 4-0 in the first inning, the Mariners responded with 16 straight runs to seize control and hung up crooked numbers in every inning in which they batted. Matt Falk led the way with three homers—including a grand slam in the seventh—and drove in six runs. Bo Yaworski also went deep twice in the game, and Dougie DelaCruz and Hunter Yaworski added three hits and three RBI apiece.
Alex Ritch homered for the Panthers, who dropped to 23-9 overall. Beau Root went 2-for-2 with a triple while John Collins also had a double and knocked in a run.
Middlebury came out swinging to start the game, as Root led off with a triple and Ritch followed with a two-run bomb to left to make it 2-0. Later in the frame, back-to-back RBI singles by Collins and Jack Stopler extended the margin to 4-0 before the Mariners had even taken a turn at the plate.
Mitchell began the comeback with single runs in each of the first three innings. B. Yaworski swatted a solo homer down the right field line to put the Mariners on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first. Falk hit his first homer of the day to deep center field in the second, and an RBI single by H. Yaworski cut the deficit to 4-3 in the third.
The lead changed hands in the fourth when Robbie DelaCruz delivered a pinch-hit triple that plated two runs. He later scored on a passed ball, and B. Yaworski tacked on another solo homer to cap the four-run frame.
Falk's second homer came in the fifth, a towering solo shot down the left-field line. In the sixth, both H. Yaworski and Lelo Martinez supplied RBI doubles to make it a 10-4 game.
Falk's grand slam was the highlight of a six-run seventh inning, which also included RBI singles from D. Delacruz and H. Yaworski. Falk now leads the team with nine home runs this season, the second-highest season total in the school's Division III history.
After Mitchell yielded a run in the eighth, D. DelaCruz capped the scoring with a two-run double in the home half. The Mariners finished the game with 15 hits, including nine that went for extra bases.
Despite the rough start, Mitchell starter Eddie Kaftan settled down and got through three innings before turning the game over to the bullpen. From there the Mariners got stellar relief stints from Daniel Driscoll and Sam Majewski, who didn't allow a hit over the final six frames. Driscoll (5-0 overall) struck out five in 4.1 innings of work to pick up the win while Majewski secured the final five outs and fanned three.
Middlebury starter Sawyer Duarte took the loss, surrendering seven runs on five hits over 3.2 innings. He struck out two and gave up five walks.
Mitchell (25-10 overall) will wrap up regular season play with a road game at Immaculata University on Tuesday, May 3 at 3:30 p.m.