Newbury College Outlasts Late Rally by Baseball to Hold on For 5-4 Win

Box Score

HOLYOKE, Mass. – Elms College junior designated hitter Reynaldo Rivera (San Juan, Puerto Rico) smashed his second home run of the season and the Blazers scored four runs in the final three innings but Newbury College mounted a 5-0 lead after three innings of play and held on for a 5-4 win in Sunday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) baseball game at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke, Mass.

With the loss Elms moves to 9-10 overall, 2-4 in league play, while Newbury wins the series and improves to 13-11 on the season, 4-4 in conference action.

Trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, junior left fielder Donald Morse (Alfred, Maine) belted a leadoff double to left field and then scored when Rivera launched a towering two-run homer to left field to pull the Blazers to within three at 5-2. Newbury's starting pitcher Zach Griesche (Niskayuna, N.Y.), who had allowed just two hits prior to the seventh, retired the next two batters on a pop out and a fly out, and used a groundout following a walk to Blazers' senior catcher Carm Bonavita (Springfield, Mass.) to get out of the inning holding a three-run lead.

Elms struck again in the bottom of the eighth when senior shortstop Brendan Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.) poked a single to right field to start the inning, advanced to second on a groundout and then scored on a blast down the left field line by junior third baseman Nicolino Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.) who coasted into second base with a standup double. Nighthawks' right fielder Matthew Clawson (Tolland, Conn.) then took over for Griesche on the mound and allowed an RBI single to Morse after Iavicoli stole third cutting the Blazers' deficit to one at 5-4. From there, Clawson induced an inning-ending double play to get out of the jam.

After Elms' left-handed reliever Andrew Bunger (Southington, Conn.), who entered with two outs in the third inning, pitched his sixth-consecutive scoreless inning of relief, Clawson retired Elms in order in the home half of the ninth frame to seal the victory for Griesche (2-1) and earn his second save of the season.

Elms' freshman right-handed starter Juan Tavarez (Springfield, Mass.) pitched the first 2.2 innings and suffered the loss to move to 0-2 on the season. Bunger was stellar in relief hurling four strikeouts and scattering just three hits.

Newbury scored a run in each of the first two innings as a Patrick Curry (Hampstead, N.H.) scored on an RBI single by Alex Chetelat (Farmington, Conn.) in the top of the first frame, and Joey Herer (Needham, Mass.) crossed the dish on a base hit up the middle by Clawson to give Newbury a 2-0 edge after two innings.

The Nighthawks added to their lead in the top of the third when Curry doubled to right field and then moved to third on a single to right by Kyle Schiavone (Wethersfield, Conn.). A double play turned by the Blazers' Brendan Cordeiro and junior second baseman Andrew Kravontka (Manchester, Conn.) allowed Curry to score before Herer delivered a two-out, two-run single to right center field to give Newbury a 5-0 advantage.

From there, Griesche allowed just one hit in the fifth and one in the sixth before the Blazers began its rally in the final three innings.

Brendan Cordeiro and Morse finished with two hits each for Elms, while Rivera drove in two with his second long ball of the 2011 campaign.

Curry, Herer and Daniel Kovner (Hamden, Conn.) added two hits each for Newbury, while Herer drove in a pair of runs to help seal the win.

Elms returns to non-conference action on Tuesday, April 12 when it travels to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) to take on the Trailblazers in a 3:30 p.m. tilt.