Baseball Falls to St. Lawrence University, University of Dubuque

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Elms College baseball team dropped a 7-4 decision to St. Lawrence University and an 11-1 decision to the University of Dubuque in Wednesday afternoon's action at the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.

With the losses, Elms moves to 1-6 overall.

Against St. Lawrence, Elms plated three runs in the bottom of the third inning when junior center fielder Steve Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) reached on an error, moved to second on a base hit to right field by sophomore right fielder Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) and then scored on an RBI single by sophomore first baseman Anthony Pagano (Cranston, R.I.).

Senior left fielder Donny Morse (Alfred, Maine) then connected for a single to load the bases before senior catcher Rey Rivera (San Juan, Puerto Rico) delivered a sacrifice fly allowing King to score. Pagano moved up to third on the play and scored on a sacrifice fly by freshman designated hitter Brady Forrest (Hampden, Mass.) to give the Blazers a 3-0 lead.

St. Lawrence got a run back in the top of the second before Elms extended its lead back to three (4-1) with a sacrifice fly by sophomore third baseman Zach Dreher (Naugatuck, Conn.) in the bottom of the bottom of the fourth.

In the top of the seventh, St. Lawrence rallied for six runs to take a 7-4 lead on the strength of three RBI doubles by Khifer O'Connor (Pembroke, Ontario), Jeff Kott (Morristown, N.J.) and Matt DeLuca (Napean, Ontario).

From there, neither team plated another run as Saints' reliever Andrew Weitzel (Cornish, N.H.) pitched the final three innings to earn the win, while Blazers' sophomore reliever Derek Leal (Charlton, Mass.) suffered the loss.

Morse and senior shortstop Nico Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.) each recorded two hits in the game, while six players registered multi-hit games for St. Lawrence.

Against Dubuque, Pagano delivered three of Elms' six hits and the Blazers scored their only run in the top of the fourth inning when Morse scored on an RBI fielder's choice by senior catcher Sean Shanley (Bristol, Conn.).

Dubuque scored in all but two innings and used a 4 for 5 effort by Vince Parisi (Tinley Park, Ill.) to pull away to the 11-1 win.

Freshman pitcher Geoffrey Frost (Ludlow, Mass.) suffered the loss for Elms tossing 6.2 innings, while Max Nank (Waterloo, Iowa) earned the win and Eric Edkin (Muscatine, Iowa) pitched the final three frames to earn the save.

Elms returns to Cusic Classic action with a double-header against Otterbein University beginning at 10:00 a.m.