AUBURNDALE, FL – Playing in the program's first-ever NCAA games, Lesley University baseball fell to Colby-Sawyer, 10-1 and 3-0, Saturday in the 2011 RussMatt Florida Invitational.
Catcher Jeff Gonzalez (Watertown, MA/Watertown, MA) went 2-for-3 with a run scored in Game 1. After driving in the Lynx only run in the opener, Noah Shaw (Amston, CT/Lebanon) struck out seven over six innings, allowing only three hits and one earned run in Game 2.
Lynx starter Ryan Genua (Prospect, CT/Woodland) danced himself into – and nearly out of – trouble early in Game 1. A lead-off walk and a single preceded a pair of fielder's choice grounders, and when Genua got ahead 0-2 on Brandon McFadden, it looked like the freshman lefty may escape unscathed.
Brandon McFadden had other ideas, and he lined a single to left-center scoring Justin Martin and Tyler Stotz, putting the Lynx behind 2-0.
After singling in the bottom of the first for Lesley's first-ever base hit, second baseman Aquib Shah (Watertown, MA/Watertown) flashed some leather in preventing a big second inning for the visitors in the second. A backpedaling catch in shallow right was followed by a full-extension grab on a liner to his left. With the base again loaded, center fielder Andrew Colon came to Genua's aid, making a diving backhanded catch that stranded three.
Gonzalez reached on a Chargers error to lead off the Lesley half of the second. After consecutive Lynx struck out looking, Shaw drove in the Lynx first run, plating Gonzalez all the way from first on a double to the wall in right, making it a 2-1 game after two.
Having scored the first run in Lynx history, Gonzalez threw out the first opposing base runner, hosing Stotz after a leadoff single in the fourth. A Greg Mehuron single chased Genua from his first college start, and with the bases loaded and two down, the Chargers got a run on a Jeff Landry fielding error. Reliever Greg Anglin (Milton, MA/Milton) froze sophomore Jordie Scheiner to end the top of the fourth with Colby-Sawyer having tacked on another run, now leading 3-1.
After continually leaving runners on in the first four innings, the Chargers finally busted the game open in the fifth. What started with an infield single and a walk continued with a two-run Mehuron triple to left, with runs five and six of the inning scoring on a two-run Scheiner single to right. In all, the Chargers plated six on six hits, taking a 9-1 lead after five.
Colby-Sawyer tacked on another in the sixth and retired the Lynx in order in the seventh, making a 10-1 winner out of starter Mike Bertuccio. The righty went the distance, allowing five hits, fanning eight and walking only one.
Genua took the loss, allowing seven hits, three runs, two earned, and striking out two over his 3 and 1/3 innings.
The nightcap would be a pitcher's duel, with both Lesley's Shaw and Colby-Sawyer's Ricky Perzentz's striking out three through the first two scoreless innings.
The Chargers struck in the bottom of the third the same way they got on the board in the opener, on a well placed two-run single. Mehuron dunked a single opposite-field down the line in right that plated Emerson and Leary, both of whom reached without a base hit. Two batters later, Stotz scored on the front end of a Colby-Sawyer double steal of second and home, making it 3-0 after three.
Shaw settled down from there, ignoring a McFadden double and Genua error to strike out the side in a scoreless fourth. He benefitted from the first double play in Lynx history an inning later, as Landry (Vestal, NY/Vestal), Shah Peter Plansky (Litchfield, NH/Campbell) turned a 6-4-3 in the fifth.
Perzentz, though, could not be phased. He retired 17 of the last 18 Lynx he faced, picking off the only runner who reached base over the last six innings, ending up with a 10-strikeout, one-walk, two-hit shutout.
Shaw went the distance in a complete game, six-inning, three-hitter, striking out seven and walking one.
Lesley returns to action tomorrow at noon against Purdue North Central and at 2:30 against Roosevelt.
