WALTHAM, Mass. – Tyler Plourd's (Canton, Conn.) single to left in the bottom of the tenth inning plated sophomore Adam Ciampi (Westford, Mass.) as they Lynx walked-off to take the series finale over Mitchell College tonight, 3-2, at Stein Diamond.
Ciampi led off the inning by reaching after getting hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored the winning run on Plourd's liner to left.
The Lynx got an outstanding effort from freshman starter Casey Blanchard (Bernardston, Mass.) who put in a career-high nine innings of work, allowing just two runs (one earned), and striking out one. Classmate Koby Mitchell (Fall River, Mass.) came in to pitch in the tenth, earning his second victory of the season. Mitchell has yet to allow a run in his 13.2 innings of relief this year.
Mitchell started the scoring as they took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Rafael Garcia (New Britain, Conn.) started the inning by reaching on an error and later came around on a Neftali Arroyo (New Haven, Conn.) RBI single to left that broke the scoreless tie. After Arroyo then stole second and gained third on a throwing error, he came in on a sacrifice-fly by freshman Jon Padilla (New Haven, Conn.).
The Lynx would cut the Mariners lead in half in the bottom of the sixth when junior Kevin Hopwood (Winter Haven, Fla.) ripped an RBI single to right-center field that drove in sophomore Rob Parson (Commack, N.Y.) who earlier reached on an error and stole second base.
Parson showed off his speed again in the bottom of the eighth when he came around from second on an exceptional bunt by Ciampi who placed the ball between first, second, and the pitcher. Parson had singled to left to lead off the inning and moved to second after an errant pick-off attempt ended up out of play.
Blanchard got in a good rhythm as the game progressed as he retired six of the final eight batters he faced before Mitchell worked a 1-2-3 tenth to earn the win.
The top of the Lynx lineup did most of the damage as the first four batters collected seven of the team's nine hits on the night. Parson finished going 2-5 with two runs scored and two stolen bases from the lead-off spot while Plourd and Hopwood each collected two hits and an RBI.
The Lynx will be back at it on Tuesday, April 23rd when they travel to Eastern Nazarene College for a non-conference doubleheader starting at 3:30p.