LEICESTER, Mass. – The Lesley University baseball team took the season series from Becker College for the second time in program history with a 5-4 victory in the rubber game, Sunday afternoon.
Junior right-hander Jeff Heinz (Portsmouth, Mass.) earned his first win of the year tossing three scoreless innings of relief. Classmate, right-hander Tom Muratore (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) picked up his first save of the season closing out the last 1.1 innings allowing one unearned run while striking out one.
The Lynx improve to 18-15-1 on the year and 9-8 in conference play while the Hawks fall to 18-17 and 11-7 in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action.
Sophomore second baseman Vincent Taliericio (Valley Stream, N.Y.) began the game pulling a double into leftfield. With a runner in scoring position, the Lynx were threatening early. Two batters later, sophomore first baseman Ryan Pumphret (Shrewsbury, Mass.) launched his fourth homerun of the season –second in as many games – to give the Lynx the 2-0 advantage.
The Lynx pushed across one more run in the inning on a sacrifice fly by junior Justin Clark (Chino Hills, Calif.) so when sophomore southpaw Colin Reed (Bedford, N.Y.) took the mound, in the bottom of the frame, he had a 3-0 cushion.
Becker took advantage of Lesley miscues in the bottom of the second to claw their way back into the game. The Hawks scored twice in the frame to cut the Lynx lead to one, 3-2. But it was all they were able to muster over the next five innings as the Lynx pitching staff was on their A-game.
Reed gave the Lynx three quality innings allowing two unearned while scattering four hits before turning the ball over to Heinz in the fourth. Heinz retired the first five batters he faced before giving up a hit to Becker shortstop T.J. Sempkowski in the fifth.
With the pitching staff giving the Lynx quality innings on the mound, the offense did their job at the plate adding two more insurance runs in the top of the fourth. Clark roped a double into left-center to bring home junior centerfielder J.P. Agiorgousis (Hanscom AFB, Mass.) before scoring himself on a sacrifice fly off the bat of first year Will Rhone (North Haven, Conn.).
Those two runs proved to be integral as the Hawks continued to chip their way back into the ballgame. Becker scored once in both the eighth and ninth inning but were unable to complete the comeback.
The Lynx return to the diamond on Tuesday May 2nd when they will close out the regular season against Elms College in Boston, Mass. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m.
Game Notes:
First year rightfielder Matthew Warner (San Diego, Calif.) went one-for-four with a run scored to extend his hitting streak to seven games...Warner is hitting .429 (12-28) with four doubles, one homeruns and seven RBI over the last seven games…Junior centerfield J.P. Agiorgousis (Hanscom AFB, Mass.) also extended his streak to six games going one-for-two with a run scored…