Southern Vermont College Downs Baseball, 10-3

Box Score

HOLYOKE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore center fielder Stephen Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) drew three walks and junior left hander Andrew Bunger (Southington, Conn.) tossed a pair of scoreless innings but Southern Vermont College's Corey Briggs (Wood River, R.I.) drilled a three-run double and the Mountaineers limited the Blazers to just three hits to help pace Southern Vermont to a 10-3 victory in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) baseball game at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke, Mass.

With the loss, Elms falls to 11-16 overall, 4-8 in NECC play, while Southern Vermont improves to 12-18 on the season, 6-6 in league action.

Trailing 7-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Elms struck for its first run of the contest when freshman third baseman Zachary Dreher (Naugatuck, Conn.) earned a leadoff walk, moved to second on a base hit by junior left fielder Andrew Kravontka (Manchester, Conn.) and then raced to third when senior catcher Carm Bonavita (Springfield, Mass.) reached on a fielder's choice to give the Blazers runners on the corners. A walk to freshman right fielder Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) loaded the bases for senior second baseman Brendan Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.) who lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score Dreher.

Elms scored again in the bottom of the sixth frame when junior shortstop Nicolino Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.) cracked a leadoff double, advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on a groundout by freshman designated hitter Anthony Pagano (Cranston, R.I.) to pull the Blazers to within five at 7-2.

Elms put across its third tally when Bonavita was hit by a pitch with one out and then scored from first when Brendan Cordeiro connected for a two-out bunt single and scampered all the way to third on a two-base throwing error, cutting the Blazers deficit to four at 7-3.

Following a scoreless eighth stanza, Southern Vermont tacked on three in the top of the ninth highlighted by Briggs' three-run double with the bases loaded to lift the Mountaineers to a 10-3 victory.

Southern Vermont starter Ben Naaktgeboren (Cambridge, N.Y.) no-hit Elms through the first four innings and struck out four batters through 6.2 innings to earn the win and improve to 2-2 on the season.

Blazers' freshman starter Curtis LeBeau (Auburn, Mass.) suffered the loss allowing four earned runs on five hits and falls to 1-5 overall.

Southern Vermont got things going in the top of the third frame when Pat Warrington (Folcroft, Pa.) and Briggs scored when Corey Armstrong (Bennington, Vt.) reached on a two-out error to give the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead.

Southern Vermont increased its lead with four in the top of the fourth when Keith Diotte (Cambridge, N.Y.) tripled and then scored when he and Dave Gage (Gloversville, N.Y.) executed a double steal. A Briggs' walk put two runners on for Warrington who drove them in a three-bagger – the second of the inning – to give the Mountaineers a 5-0 advantage. Warrington eventually came around to score on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 6-0 before the squad chalked up another run in the top of the fifth to stake a 7-0 lead.

Warrington finished with three hits and a pair of RBI, while Gage, Adam Northup (Richmond, R.I.), Dave Northup (Richmond, R.I.) and Andrew Morin (Hoosick Falls, N.Y.) collected two hits each.

Southern Vermont and Elms will wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 23 in Bennington, Vt. beginning at 1:00 p.m.