Baseball Falls In 12 To Monmouth College, 6-5; Loses to Merchant Marine Academy, 16-8

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Elms College baseball team fell 6-5 in 12 innings to Monmouth College before losing 16-8 to Merchant Marine Academy in Wednesday's Gene Cusic Classic action in Fort Myers, Fla.

With the two losses, Elms moves to 4-4 overall.

Monmouth 6, Elms 5 (12 Innings)

With the score knotted at 5-5 in the bottom of the 12^th, Monmouth's Kyle Higginson (Morton, Ill.) reached on a one-out error, advanced to second on an Elms miscue and then scored on a walk-off RBI base-hit by Caleb Ruyle (Winchester, Ill.) to give the Fighting Scots a 6-5 win.

After Elms took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first frame on an RBI groundout by junior third baseman Nicolino Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.), Monmouth rallied for three in the home half of the stanza.

The Blazers cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the fourth as Iavicoli touched home in the frame, before a Fighting Scots' run in the fifth pushed the advantage back to 4-2.

Junior second baseman Andrew Kravontka (Manchester, Conn.) led off a three-run seventh inning with a single, and freshman right fielder Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) reached on an error before both came full circle on a two-run rip by Iavicoli, tying the game at 4-4. Sophomore center fielder Stephen Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.), who had reached via a walk, scored on an RBI single by junior left fielder Donald Morse (Alfred, Maine) giving Elms a 5-4 lead.

After scoreless eighth inning, Monmouth plated the equalizer with one down in the bottom of the ninth on a bases loaded sacrifice fly forcing extra innings.

Merchant Marine Academy 16, Elms 8

Elms held a 2-0 edge after the first two stanzas before three-run third inning put Merchant Marine Academy in front, 3-2.

The Mariners added to their lead with three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning before Elms rallied to pull to within one at 6-5 with three scores in the top of the fifth frame. Senior shortstop Brendan Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.), Fisher and Iavicoli each scored in the inning.

The Merchant Marine Academy tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth before Kravontka walked and then scored, while Brendan Cordeiro tagged a single and eventually came full circle to plate the tying run setting the score to 7-7 in the top of the sixth.

The Mariners scored four times in the bottom of the sixth, and then used a five-run eighth inning to pull away to a 16-8 victory.

Elms concludes Gene Cusic Classic action on Thursday, March 10 when it takes on Eastern Nazarene College in a twinbill beginning at 10:00 a.m. with the second game slated for a 1:00 p.m. start.