Baseball's Win Streak Ends at Clark

Worcester, Mass. – Teddy Downing (Cambridge, Mass.) hit for the cycle to lead a potent Clark University offensive attack and the host Cougars defeated Elms College 14-3 in their second meeting of the season in non-league baseball action at a chilly Granger Diamond on Saturday afternoon. The Blazers program-mark of 12 straight victories comes to an end with the loss.

With the win, the Scarlet and White inch closer to .500 at 7-8 under first-year head coach JP Pyne, while the Blazers see their 12-game winning streak snapped. In fact, Elms is 0-2 against Clark this season, 12-0 against everyone else on their schedule.

In today's matchup, the Cougars banged out a season-high 21 hits as four different Clark players had three hits or more, led by Downing who went 4-for-6 with three RBI and three runs scored.

Downing got the Scarlet and White offense off and running in the bottom of the first when he led off with a triple and then came around to score on a Kyle Bonicki (Waterbury, Conn.) single.

After Elms pushed a run across in the top of the second on a bases loaded fielder's choice, Clark got runs on a Tyler Hutchinson(Greene, Maine) sacrifice fly and then two more on Downing's first career homerun.

The Cougars added another run in the third when David Eschen (New York, N.Y.) homered to left to push the Clark lead to 5-1.

Elms scored another run on an Aedin Wadja (Lebanon, Conn.) double in the fifth but the Scarlet and White put two more on the board in the bottom of the frame on an Eschen RBI double and an Adam Chochrek (Foxboro, Mass.) sacrifice fly.

Each team tacked on another run with Clark's coming on a James Conway (Newburyport, Mass.) single and Elms getting a run on a Ben Ross (Thompson, Conn.) base hit.

The Cougars' big inning came in the eighth when they scored six runs and sent 12 batters to the plate off of Blazers' reliever Peter Gilbert (Easthampton, Mass.). Downing had two of his hits in the eighth, first opening up with a double to left and then later on an infield single that not only completed the cycle but also drove in a run.

Mike Tice (Chelmsford, Mass.) improved to 3-0 on the season with six innings of work, allowing five hits and striking out a career-best eight. Joe Gouveia (Nashua, N.H.) tossed the final three innings, yielding two hits and one earned run to earn his first save of the season.

Cody Lemieux (Torrington, Conn.) went the first five innings for Elms, allowing 11 hits and seven earned runs.

In addition to Downing's huge afternoon, Bonicki went 3-for-6 with three RBI, Eschen had three hits, four runs scored and a pair of RBI and Conway had four hits as well.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday with doubleheaders. Elms travels to Daniel Webster while Clark hosts Brandeis.

Source: (Clark Athletics)