Mitchell College Outlasts Baseball, 7-6

NASHUA, N.H. – Elms College junior designated hitter Sam Farnsworth (Westfield, Mass.) was 2 for 5 with a three-run homer in the top of the ninth, but Mitchell College's Kenneth Olszewski (Canterbury, Conn.) drove in three runs and Rafael Garcia (New Britain, Conn.) homered to help the second-seeded Mariners outlast the third-seed Blazers, 7-6 in Friday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament action.

With the loss, Elms moves to 19-18 on the season and will take on fourth-seeded Becker College (11-25) at 10:00 a.m. in an elimination game on Saturday, May 4 in Nashua, N.H. Mitchell (22-12-1) will play top-seeded Daniel Webster College (25-9) at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Trailing 7-3 in the top of the ninth, freshman left fielder Dan McCormack (Shelton, Conn.) drew a one-out walk, freshman shortstop Nolan Medeiros (Taunton, Mass.) earned a free pass, and both came full circle when Farnsworth lifted a three-run blast to left field – his first long ball of the season – to pull Elms to within one at 7-6. Mariners' reliever Tyler Shamas (Westbrook, Conn.) then entered for Jeff Dowling (Branchburg, N.J.) and forced an infield pop up to end the game.

Al Jordan Johnson (Lancaster, Calif.) earned the win for Mitchell, after pitching 8.1 innings. He allowed four runs on nine hits and struck out two batters.

Elms' junior starter Derek Leal (Charlton, Mass.) pitched 4.2 frames and suffered the loss. He allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits and struck out three. Senior reliever John Russell (Springfield, Mass.) pitched 3.1 innings in relief allowing three unearned runs on six hits and struck out three hitters in the no-decision.

After the sides each scored a run in the first inning, Elms took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth stanza when junior first baseman Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) singled in senior center fielder Stephen Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) and McCormack drove in freshman second baseman Aedin Wadja (Lebanon, Conn.) with a base hit.

In the home half of the frame, Mitchell used a solo home run by Garcia, an RBI double by Neftali Arroyo (West Haven, Conn.) and Marc Dorsi (West Haven, Conn.) scored on a wild pitch to post a 4-3 lead.

An Olszewski sacrifice fly highlighted a two-run sixth frame, and an RBI single by Olszewski in the bottom of the eighth allowed the Mariners to stake a 7-3 edge heading to the ninth.

McCormack, Farnsworth, Fisher and King each had two hits for Elms in the losing effort, while Nova Crespo (New London, Conn.) and Olszewski had three hits each for the Mariners. Garcia and Dorsi added two hits each.