Baseball Falters Twice at Salve Regina

NEWPORT, R.I.- The Eastern Nazarene College baseball team lost a pair of tilts at Salve Regina Monday afternoon, falling 2-1 and 9-2.

The Lions slide to 5-14 on the year and 0-6 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with the results. The Seahawks improve to 9-7 overall and 3-2 in league play with the wins.

Brandon Wynne (New Haven, Conn.) finished with two hits and one RBI on the day. Rocco Martinelli (Panama City, Panama) recorded a base knock, one stolen base and an RBI. Jeremy Wagner (Oklahoma City, Okla.) notched a base hit and scored a run.

In game one, the home team got on the board in the third to seize a 1-0 lead. Alex Perry singled down the right field line to drive in Ryan Kelly from third.

The Seahawks tallied a run in the fifth to double their advantage to 2-0 as John Militano crossed the dish on a wild pitch.

The guests cut the deficit in half with a run in the top of the sixth, 2-1. Jeremy Wagner scored on a groundout by Cameron Fiorentino (Uxbridge, Mass.).

Brent Houle (Westfield, Mass.) pitched a complete game and fanned four batters in six innings.

In the nightcap, Salve Regina opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with one run. Kelly tagged up and scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Joe Haley.

The Seahawks tallied two runs in the second inning to widen the margin to 3-0. David Neil singled up the middle to drive in Daniel Donohue before coming around to score on an error.

Eastern Nazarene plated a run in the top of the third to narrow the gap to 3-1. Jake Koch (Dayton, Nev.) scampered home from third base on a groundout by Martinelli.

The home team scored twice in the third frame to increase its lead to 5-1 as Perry launched a two-run home run to right-centerfield.

The visitors responded with a run in the fourth to pull to within three, 5-2. Wynne raked a one-out single to center to plate Miguel Ortiz (New Britain, Conn.).

Salve Regina pushed across a pair of scores in the home half of the fourth to jump ahead 7-2. After Neil singled to lead off the inning, Christian Vargas followed with a two-run homer to left.

The Seahawks capped off the scoring with two runs in the sixth to claim a 9-2 edge. Haley singled up the middle with the bases loaded to score Neil and Vargas.

Doug English (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) hurled two innings in his fourth start of the season. Rob Dukes (Spencer, Mass.) tossed 3.2 innings in his seventh relief appearance of the spring and struck out five batters. Brandon Wells (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) retired the only batter he faced in his fourth outing of the year.

Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene will host non-conference foe Lesley at Bradley Field in the first home game of the spring April 8.