Baseball Belts Four Homers, Absorbs Walk-Off Loss at St. Joseph’s

STANDISH, Maine- The Eastern Nazarene College baseball team dropped a narrow 11-10 decision at St. Joseph's (Maine) Tuesday.

The Lions dip to 6-6 on the season with the setback while the Monks improve to 6-8 overall.

Steven Pesce (Harrison, N.Y.) landed three hits, scored twice, drove in one RBI, and stole a base on the day. Shane McNamara (Londonderry, N.H.) posted two base hits, three RBIs, and three runs scored. Jaime Roldan (Boston, Mass.) finished with one hit, four RBIs, and one run scored. Francis Ferguson (Jefferson, Mass.) chipped in with a pair of runs scored, one base knock, and a stolen base.

The visitors plated a pair of runs in the top of the first inning to seize a 2-0 edge. McNamara belted his league-leading fifth home run of the season to drive in Ferguson.

The hosts answered with a run in the bottom of the frame to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Eastern Nazarene reclaimed a two-run advantage, 3-1, with a run in the second inning as Jamie Carey (Amherst, Mass.) launched his first homer of the spring.

The Lions widened the gap to 5-1 with a pair of runs in the top of the third. McNamara picked up his conference-best 17th RBI of the year with a base knock to plate Max Miednik (Parkland, Fla.) from third base. McNamara crossed the dish on an RBI groundout by Roldan.

St. Joseph's tallied three runs in the bottom of the third inning to trim the margin to 5-4. The Monks scored twice in the fourth inning to grab a one-run lead, 6-5.

The Lions responded with four runs in the fifth to capture a 9-6 advantage. Ferguson scampered home on an error before Roldan clobbered his first homer of the season,  a three-run blast to score Pesce and McNamara.

The home team produced four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to jump ahead 10-9.

Eastern Nazarene leveled the contest at 10-10 with a run in the seventh. Pesce crushed a leadoff homer for his second of the spring.

St. Joseph's walked off with its sixth victory of the season, scoring the deciding run in the bottom of the ninth.

Ryan Sharkey (Salisbury, Mass.) tossed two innings and struck out one batter in his second start of the season. Jon Tessier (Coronado, Calif.) worked one inning in his fifth relief appearance of the year. Brenndan Rogers (Hanson, Mass.) pitched one relief inning and recorded one strikeout in his fifth outing of the spring. Morgan Weast (Cincinnati, Ohio) hurled four innings and fanned seven in his team-leading sixth appearance. Bryan Sanchez (Boston, Mass.) threw two-thirds of an inning in his third game of the season.

Up next, Eastern Nazarene returns home to take on Trinity March 31.