New London, CT --- Jack Zawacki (Pittsford, NY) singled in a pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning to lead the WPI baseball team to a key 8-6 NEWMAC win over Coast Guard on Monday afternoon on the road. The win keeps the Engineers alive for a postseason berth, as they move to 15-18 overall, 4-9 in conference play. Coast Guard falls to 13-15, 6-7 NEWMAC.
Zawacki's one-out hit sealed a game in which WPI led until the bottom of the eighth before the Bears scored the game-tying run. Noah Pins (Holden, MA) came in in relief and pitched a hitless ninth inning to earn the save, his third of the season. Eric DePiero (Beverly, MA) got the win to move to 3-1, throwing the eighth, allowing one run on three hits. Jeffrey Brennan (Amsterdam, NY) collected a pair of RBI for the Engineers, while Tommy Burns (Morris Plains, NJ) and DJ Brooks (Danvers, MA) also drove in runs.
Coast Guard's offense was paced by homeruns from Parker Madden (Ruston, LA) and Justin Stasiak (Effort, PA), Parker's was his fourth of the season, while Stasiak's solo bomb was his first of the year. Sean Rojas (San Antonio, TX) suffered the loss, throwing four and two-thirds of an inning, allowing two runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
WPI dented the scoreboard in the top of the second inning, with Kyle DeRoma (Dracut, MA) walking and Jonathan Lattimer (Windsor, CT) recording a one-out single. Brooks followed with a single to right field and Lattimer later scored on an error to make it 2-0.
A two-out rally in the top of the fourth led to three more WPI runs to push it to 5-0. Walks to Lattimer and Liam Keblin (Newton, MA) started things off before a Burns single to center scored the first run of the frame. Brennan then put the ball in play to push two more across on an error as the Engineers went up by five.
Coast Guard cut the deficit to 5-4 with a four-spot in the bottom of the fourth. A walk issued to Jack Steel (Medford Lakes, NJ) scored on a two-run shot from Madden homerun for the first Bears' runs, before an RBI single from Stasiak and a bases-loaded walk to Richard Barkley (Bellevue, WA) made it a one-run game.
The Engineers answered with a DeRoma score in the top of the fifth, converting a one-out single to a run on a passed ball to lead 6-4.
Coast Guard battled back to tie the game at 6-6 with solo runs in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, a Madden sac fly made it 6-5, while Stasiak's solo homerun in the bottom of the eighth tied it.
In the top of the ninth, Jacob Hand (Niskayuna, NY) worked a walk and Brennan added a single before Zawacki's single sent both of them home for the go-ahead runs. Pins then sat the Bears down in order in the bottom of the ninth to finish out the win.
WPI has another important NEWMAC match-up tomorrow, playing at MIT at 3:30pm. Coast Guard is in action at the same time, hosting No. 15 Wheaton.