Baseball Splits With RIT

AVON PARK, Fla. – Junior Alex Wong (Lewiston, Maine) hurled a three-hit shutout as the Wentworth baseball team extended its win streak to four games with an 8-0 win over RIT in the first game of a doubleheader played at South Florida Community College. The Tigers snapped the Leopards streak with a 5-4 win game in the nightcap.

Wong faced just three batters over the minimum in picking up his first win of the season and helped himself by going 2-for-3 with a double, triple, and two RBI at the plate. He got things started in the first inning by being hit by a pitch and stole second base. Wong would move to third on a sophomore Jon Spitz (Hanover, Mass.) groundout and come home on an error.

An inning later Wentworth tacked on two more runs when Wong delivered his fifth triple of the season, which drove in two runs.

The game remained 3-0 in favor of the Leopards until the fifth inning when RBI singles from freshman Jake Mailman (Medway, Mass.) and senior Kevin McKenzie (Arlington, Mass.) and a fielder's choice RBI from freshman Scott Ouellette (Lewiston, Maine) made it a 5-0 game. In the sixth inning Wong doubled, moved to third on a balk, and scored on a RBI groundout from Spitz. Freshman Anthony Matera (Trumbull, Conn.), who came in as a pinch runner, eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

In addition to Wong's two hits, junior Ryan Delgado (Wareham, Mass.) went 3-for-4 in the game. Freshman Ethan Humbert (Rose, N.Y.) took the loss (0-2) for the Tigers, allowing eight runs (four earned) and striking out four in five innings.

The Tigers scored four times in the first inning of the nightcap, with two coming on a triple off the bat of sophomore Walt Roman (Spencerport, N.Y.). Classmate Corey McEvoy (Hilton, N.Y.) drove in Roman and freshman Tyler Ramotar (Burnt Hills, N.Y.) would drive in McEvoy after and error kept the inning alive.

Wentworth cut the lead in half in the second inning when senior Justin Bolla (Groveland, Mass.) doubled and came home on a sophomore Paul Dassau (Franklin, Mass.) RBI single. Junior Tom Moules (Peabody, Mass.), who had a single in the inning, came home on a wild pitch.

The Leopards trimmed the lead to one in the third inning when Spitz doubled and came around to score on a senior Conner Flisnik (Marcy, N.Y.) single.

RIT got a run back in the fourth inning when sophomore Ron Canestro (East Amherst, N.Y.) singled in senior Kreag Bradley (Victor, N.Y.). In the top of the fifth inning Wentworth again pulled within one when Bolla hit his second double of the game and scored on a Delgado ground-rule double.

Wentworth had the tying run at third and go-ahead run at first in the sixth inning with two out, however, a pickoff ended the threat.

Freshman Skip Flanagan (Framingham, Mass.) picked up his first win of the season (1-1) after allowing four runs on nine hits and striking out two in five innings. Sophomore Tyler Leichtenberger (Warren, Pa.) earned the save after allowing just one hit over the final two innings. Bradley and Canestro each had two hits for the Tigers while Roman drove in two runs.

Bolla went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles for the Leopards, while sophomore Dakota Baird (Bermuda Dunes, Calif.) was tagged with the loss (0-2), allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits in five innings. He struck out six batters. Freshman Justin Voytek (New Milford, Conn.) walked a batter and struck out a batter in an inning of work. Wong added a hit in the second game and has now hit safely in Wentworth's first 11 games.

Wentworth (7-4) concludes its spring trip tomorrow against Mount Union.