Baseball Suffers Two Setbacks at Gordon Sunday

WENHAM, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College baseball team dropped a pair of contests at Gordon Sunday afternoon, falling 5-3 and 5-2.

The Lions slip to 16-16 on the season and 1-11 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with the results. The Fighting Scots improve to 16-12 overall and 8-4 in league games.

Anthony Esposito (Mount Royal, N.J.) collected three base hits and stole a base in the twinbill. Joshua Bombard (Rutland, Mass.) recorded two hits, two runs scored, and one stolen base. Zach Zaino (Falmouth, Mass.) finished with a pair of base knocks, one RBI, one stolen base, and a run scored. Connor Simpson (Haverhill, Mass.) landed two hits and crossed the dish once while Zachary Carmody (Babylon, N.Y.) chipped in with a pair of hits.

In the opening tilt, Gordon tallied five unanswered runs to claim a 5-3 victory.

Eastern Nazarene plated a pair of runs in the top of the second inning to post a 2-0 lead. Bombard and Matthew Urena (Flushing, N.Y.) both crossed the dish on errors in the frame.

The Lions added a score in the third to extend the margin to 3-0. Steven Pesce (Harrison, N.Y.) laced a two-out single to left-center to drive in Zaino from second base.

The Fighting Scots rallied for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to vault ahead 4-3. Alec Willey motored home as Matt Moffat reached first base on an error. Joseph Mack and Addison Tarr absorbed back-to-back hit-by-pitches with the bases loaded to knock in John Lagerfeldt and Chris Leavitt. Christian Hodge poked a base hit to left field to plate Moffat from third.

The hosts tacked on a run in the sixth to stretch their advantage to 5-3. Willey scored on a double-steal as Lagerfeldt swiped second base.

Brenndan Rogers (Hanson, Mass.) threw four innings in his sixth start of the spring and finished with two strikeouts. Xavier Faria (Assonet, Mass.) worked two innings of relief and fanned two batters in his team-leading 15th appearance of the season.

The Fighting Scots locked up the sweep with a 5-2 win in game two.

The visitors quickly established a 1-0 edge with one run in the top of the first. Simpson scored his team-leading 27th run of the year as Zaino roped a double to left field.

Gordon knotted the contest at 1-1 with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Willey crossed the dish for the third time on the day as Leavitt singled to left.

The Lions reclaimed a one-run advantage in the fourth, scoring one run to take a 2-1 lead. Bombard scurried home from third base on a groundout by Urena.

The Fighting Scots chalked up two runs in the home half of the fourth to snag a 3-2 edge as Leavitt and Moffat notched back-to-back RBI base hits.

Gordon widened the gap to 5-2 with two runs in the fifth frame. Hodge hammered a double to centerfield to plate Daniel Quint and Tarr.

In his second conference start on the hill, Ben Petersen (Manchester, Conn.) tossed 4.1 innings and registered a pair of strikeouts. Rob Dukes (Spencer, Mass.) pitched 1.2 innings in his third relief outing of the season.

Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene hosts a non-conference doubleheader against Lesley April 25.