Baseball Opens 2013 Campaign With Two Wins

LEESBURG, Fla. – Freshman J.P. Dennehy (Danbury, Conn.) and sophomore Joe Hulme (Tewksbury, Mass.) each rapped out four hits while freshman Paul Vergara (Needham, Mass.) spun a one-hit shutout in his collegiate debut as the Wentworth baseball team opened the 2013 campaign with a pair of wins, sweeping Cazenovia, 21-3 and 3-0.

In the first game the Leopards eclipsed the 20-run plateau for the first time since a 20-7 win over Lasell on March 26, 2009, and jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead as Dennehy had an RBI single, Hulme scored on a wild pitch, sophomore Jake Mailman (Medway, Mass.) scored on a sacrifice fly, and senior Ryan Delgado (Wareham, mass.) delivered a two-run single.

Wentworth plated three runs in the third and fifth innings to take an 11-0 lead as sophomore Anthony Matera (Trumbull, Conn.) and junior Dakota Baird (Bermuda Dunes, Calif.) scored when sophomore Scott Ouellette (Lewiston, Maine) reached on an error and Delgado scored Ouellette on a sacrifice fly in the third and Hulme and Mailman delivered RBI singles in the fifth, with the third fifth inning run coming when Dennehy scored on an error off of Mailman's single.

The Wildcats scored three times in the fifth when senior Pat Shepherdson (Little Falls, N.Y.) hit a solo home run and sophomore Matt Nestopoulos (Ithaca, N.Y.) had a two-run single.

Wentworth tacked on 10 runs over the final two innings with junior Paul Dassau (Franklin, Mass.) delivering a three-run double in the sixth, followed by an RBI single from classmate Jon Spitz (Hanover, Mass.) and a Mailman sacrifice fly. Freshman Greg Confessore (West Hartford, Conn.) had an RBI single in the seventh and classmate Matt Rucho (West Boylston, Mass.) drew a bases-loaded walk, with the other three runs coming by way of errors.

Junior Ben Lewis (Middletown, R.I.) allowed three runs on five hits and struck out eight in five innings of work to pick up the win. Seniors Ryan Conrad (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Ryan DeCotis (Nashua, N.H.) kept the Wildcats off the board over the final two innings. Hulme was 3-for-6, while Spitz, Dennehy, Matera, and Dassuau each had two hits. Delgado and Dassau each had three RBI. The win was the 150th for ninth-year head coach Steve Studley, who, with the sweep, ups his career record to 151-150-1.

Game two saw the Black & Gold score a single run in the bottom of the second when Matera led off with a double and was bunted over to third by Ouellette before scoring on a wild pitch. An inning later Wentworth rounded out the scoring when Dennehy hit a ground-rule double that scored Spitz, who had left off with a single and stole second.

Vergara struck out eight batters, hit a pair of batters, and walked just one. Twice he got out of second and third jams, including in the fifth when he hit the leadoff batter and walked the second batter he faced before recording outs on a strikeout, sacrifice bunt, and a strikeout.

Dennehy had two hits – both doubles – for the Leopards, who snapped an eight-game losing streak (dating back to last season) with the win in the opener.

Sophomore Tom Debernardis (Utica, N.Y.) was tagged with the loss for Cazenovia as he allowed three runs on eight hits, striking out five and walking two in five innings of work.