NASHUA, N.H. – Leading by a 2-1 score heading into the seventh inning, Lesley University pushed one run across in the eighth and pulled away with a four-run ninth to post a 7-1 victory over host Daniel Webster College in New England Collegiate Baseball action Thursday at Harvey Woods Field.
The Lynx take the season series with the Eagles 2-1 and improve to 16-16 and 8-7 in the NECC and pulled to within a half game of Becker in the league standings for the fourth and final playoff spot. Lesley will complete their NECC slate with a three-game weekend set against Mitchell College that begins with a doubleheader at 11:00a on Saturday at Trum Memorial Stadium.
Daniel Webster completes is NECC schedule at 4-14 and dropped to 8-20 on the season. The Eagles open a three-game weekend series with Colby-Sawyer on Saturday with a doubleheader at Noon and head to New London, N.H. on Sunday.
Lynx senior Gustavo Polidor (Caracas, Venezuela) was 3-for-5 for the at leadoff with a double, scoring twice and knocking in a run. Both junior Mike Slaby (Foxboro, Mass.) and freshman Ryan Pumphret (Shrewsbury, Mass.) were 2-for-4 with one RBI each. Freshman Nicholas Ferragine (Randolph, N.J.) and senior Casey Blanchard (Bernardston, Mass.) were 2-for-4. Rookie Jacob Cervantes (Oxnard, Calif.), sophomore Justin Clark (Chino Hills, Calif.), and junior J.P. Agiorgousis (Hanscom, Mass.) knocked in single runs.
DWC got a pair of hits from Mike Habibi (Nashua, N.H.) while Mike Pelletier (Pelham, N.H.) knocked in the lone Eagle run with a sac fly RBI in the sixth. Fernando Osorio (Manchester, N.H.), Dakota Williams (Hudson, N.H.), and Devin DeCarteret (Pelham, N.H.) added single hits.
Lesley starter Tom Muratore (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) picked up the win to improve to 4-3 on the season. The sophomore allowed just one unearned run on four hits over seven innings while striking out three and walking two. Sophomores Nick Iadevaio (Mineola, N.Y.) and Jeff Heinz (Portsmouth, N.H.) pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, to close out the Eagles with Heinz striking out the side in the ninth.
Pumphret led off the second inning with a double before Agiorgousis came through with a double of his own with two outs that to open the scoring for the Lynx. Lesley picked up another clutch two-out hit in the top of the third as Slaby smacked a single to left that allowed Polidor – who earlier reached with a double to left-center – to cross the plate to extend the visitor's lead to 2-0.
After Pelletier cut the lead in half in the sixth, Lesley upped it to 3-1 in the eighth on a sac fly RBI from Clark. Lesley pushed their four ninth inning runs across on three hits with a Polidor RBI single followed by back-to-back sacrifice-fly's from Pumphret and Cervantes as the Lynx pulled away to clinch their third win in the last four games.