MIT Advances Past Baseball, 12-0 in ECAC Division III New England Championship Semifinals

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The seventh-seeded Elms College baseball team fell to No. 3 MIT, 12-0 in Saturday afternoon's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Championship semifinal game in Cambridge, Mass.

With the loss, Elms concludes its most successful season in program history with an overall record of 20-20. MIT improves to 27-11 overall and will play fifth-seeded Coast Guard Academy on Sunday afternoon in the ECAC Division III New England Championship title game. 

MIT's Kendall Helbert (St. Louis, Mo.) was 4 for 5 with a pair of runs scored and five RBI on the day to lead the Engineers to their 27^th victory of the season. Hayden Cornwell (Newport Beach, Calif.) connected on his third home run of the year, a three-run blast as part of a five run third inning to bolster MIT's offensive output. 

Helbert opened the scoring in the second inning as he knocked home the game's first run with a double plating Parker Tew (Chapel Hill, N.C.). KJ Parent (Knoxville, Tenn.) added an RBI single later in the inning to give the Engineers a 2-0 edge.

Helbert followed Cornwell's homer in the third inning with his second of three doubles on the afternoon to tack on two more runs as MIT jumped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings of play.

The Engineers added on five more runs in the home half of the eighth inning as six consecutive batters reached base safely with Helbert capping the frame with a two-run double.

Tew scored three runs on the afternoon for MIT, while Helbert, James McKinney (Wakefield, R.I.) and Ricardo Perez (Vienna, Va.) each scored twice.

Aric Dama (Winfield, Ill.) moved to 7-2 on the mound this season for the Engineers as he held Elms to just four hits over his seven innings of work while striking out four.

Freshman left fielder Dan McCormack (Shelton, Conn.) was 2 for 4 on the day for Elms, while junior first baseman Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) and sophomore third baseman Geoffrey Frost (Ludlow, Mass.) were each 1 for 3 at the plate.

Elms' freshman starting pitcher Thomas Weldon (Springfield, Mass.) suffered the loss to move to 3-4 on the hill.