Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Wheaton College (Ill.)

Box Scores

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Elms College baseball team earned a comeback, 8-6 win in game one of a doubleheader with Wheaton College (Ill.) before falling 16-0 to the Thunder in the nightcap during Monday's action at the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.

With the split, Elms moves to 3-2 on the season while Wheaton moves to 3-1 overall.

Elms 8, Wheaton 6

Trailing 5-0 heading to the bottom of the second inning, Elms' junior left fielder Donald Morse (Alfred, Maine) singled to right center to lead off the inning and then scored when freshman right fielder Derek Leal (Charlton, Mass.) doubled to right center with one out. Leal advanced to third on a groundout before scoring on an RBI two-bagger off the bat of senior catcher Carm Bonavita (Springfield, Mass.) to cut the lead to 5-2.

Wheaton increased its lead to 6-2 when Ryan Miller (Poway, Calif.) tagged a solo blast to left field to start the fourth inning.

The Blazers answered with a five-run fifth stanza started by back-to-back singles from Rivera and Bonavita. Freshman first baseman Nick Dreher (Naugatuck, Conn.) reached on a fielder's choice and an error allowed Elms to load the bases with no outs in the frame. Senior shortstop Brendan Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.) then reached on a Thunder error sending Rivera home with the first run of the inning. Sophomore center fielder Stephen Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) followed with an RBI single, and junior third baseman Nicolino Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.) delivered an RBI groundout to pull Elms to within one at 6-5. From there, Morse drilled a two-run base hit down the left field line plating the tying and go-ahead runs before Wheaton was able to get out of the jam.

Freshman right-hander Curtis LeBeau (Auburn, Mass.) entered in relief of Elms' lefty starter Nick Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.) and pitched two scoreless innings to help Elms secure the come-from-behind victory. LeBeau earned his first collegiate save.

The Blazers added a run in the bottom of the sixth when Brendan Cordeiro delivered a single up the middle scoring Bonavita who had reached on an error earlier in the frame to give Elms an 8-6 edge.

Nick Cordeiro struck out six in 5.0 innings of work on the hill and earned the win to improve to 2-0 on the season, while Wheaton starter Taylor Howe (Ballwin, Mo.) suffered the loss and falls to 0-1 overall.

Fisher, Morse and Bonavita each connected for two hits, while Brendan Cordeiro and Morse drove in two runs each to highlight the winning effort.

Wheaton was led by a 3 for 4 effort from Miller, while Justin Zeller (Indianapolis, Ind.) added three RBI and a pair of hits in the loss.

Wheaton 16, Elms 0

In the nightcap, Wheaton scored 16 runs on 15 hits and used a six-run second inning and a six-run sixth frame to earn the split.

Four Thunder batters had multi-hit games including Austin Driggers (Abilene, Texas) who was 2 for 2 with a homer and three RBI.

Danny Pyne (Green Bay, Wisc.) was 4 for 4 at the dish with 4 runs batted in, while Zeller went 2 for 4 with four RBI to highlight the winning effort.

Trey Martin (Wheaton, Ill.) pitched the first 6.0 innings, recorded three strikeouts and limited Elms to just two hits en route to his first victory of the season. Phillip Tuttle (Duluth, Ga.) tossed a scoreless seventh inning to seal the win.  

Elms returns to Gene Cusic Classic action on Tuesday, March 8 when it takes on Defiance College at 10:00 a.m.