Springfield College Swings by Baseball, 9-1

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Elms College senior catcher Sean Shanley (Bristol, Conn.) went 2 for 4 at the plate with a run scored, but Springfield College's Mike Corletta (Westtown, N.Y.) was 4 for 5 with four runs scored, while Steve Starr (Lebanon, Conn.) and Mike Tanguay (Westbrook, Maine) drove in three apiece to help pace the Pride to a 9-1 victory in Wednesday afternoon's non-league baseball game at Berry-Allen Field.

With the loss, Elms moves to 13-19 overall, while Springfield improves to 19-13 on the season.

Springfield scored in all but two innings, notching a single run in each of the first three innings, two in the fifth, a single run in the seventh and three in the eighth en route to its 9-1 win.

Leading 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Tanguay singled in a run and Starr drove in a run on a bases-loaded walk to extend the lead to 5-0.

Elms plated its only run of the game when Shanley led off the stanza with a single to right field, advanced to second on a passed ball, raced up 90 feet on a groundout and then scored on an RBI groundout by senior third baseman Andrew  Kravontka (Manchester, Conn.) to set the score at 5-1.

An RBI groundout by Starr lifted Springfield's lead back to five (6-1) in the bottom of the seventh before an RBI base hit by Tanguay, an RBI walk by Shane O'Leary (Kings Park, N.Y.) and a run-scoring fielder's choice by Starr allowed the Pride to post a 9-1 lead.

Springfield relief pitcher Craig Zysk (Shelton, Conn.) tossed the final two innings and recorded a pair of strikeouts to cap the win. Travis Lane (Canton, Conn.) pitched the first six innings allowing no runs on four hits while striking out two batters to earn the victory and improve to 2-2 on the mound.

Elms' junior left-hander John Russell (Springfield, Mass.) issued a pair of strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched, but suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season.

Elms' sophomore shortstop Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) added two hits in the game, while junior center fielder Steve Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) and sophomore first baseman Anthony Pagano (Cranston, R.I.) each tallied a hit.

Karl Quist (New Preston, Conn.) and Matt Milano (Cumberland, R.I.) added two hits each for the Pride.

Elms returns to conference action on Saturday, April 28 when it travels to Nashua, N.H. to take on Daniel Webster College for a pair of seven inning games beginning at 12:00 p.m.