Blazers Punch Ticket to NECC Title Round

NEW LONDON, CT – Top-seeded Mitchell College and third-seeded Elms College each secured spots in the title round of the 2021 New England Collegiate Conference Baseball Championship on Saturday afternoon. 

Elms (10-13 overall) posted an 8-4 victory over NEC (16-15 overall) in the second game of the day to advance out of the loser's bracket. Justin Miller (Prospect, Conn./Holy Cross) went 2-for-4 with three RBI to lead the upset, and starting pitcher Josh Guilmartin (East Granby, Conn./East Granby) yielded three runs on six hits over 6.0 innings to earn the win.  

The double-elimination tournament will conclude on Sunday, May 9. The first game of the title round is slated to begin at noon. If necessary, a final winner-take-all game would start at 3 p.m.  

Mitchell and Elms will meet for the second time in the title round. The Mariners took the previous meeting in 2015, winning two games to capture the championship.

Game 5 – Elms 8, NEC 4 

JD Normand (Auburn, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) put NEC on the scoreboard in the second inning with the game's first hit, a two-out, two-run homer over the left-center fence. The long ball was his third of the season. 

Elms put up a total of four runs in the middle innings to swing the momentum. After Cole Blades (Lowell, Mass./Greater Lowell) cut the deficit in half with an RBI single in the fourth, the Blazers took the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth. Jake Slahtosky (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor) scored the first run on a wild pitch to tie the game, and Tyler Galenski (Wilbraham, Mass./Minnechaug) followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Blazers their first lead. Miller then added an RBI single in the sixth to extend the margin to 4-2.  

The Pilgrims got a run back in the bottom of the sixth. Garrett Langis (Rochester, N.H./Spaulding) singled up the middle and moved into scoring position with a swipe of second. Morin followed with a single to right-center to bring home the runner, trimming the deficit to 4-3. 

Elms opened the game up with a four-run seventh inning. AJ Cook (Mendon, Mass./Mount Saint Charles) led off with a walk, stole his way around the diamond and scored on a wild pitch to get things started. A bunt single by Austin Roy (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) plated the second run, and Miller capped the rally with a two-run single to make it an 8-3 game. 

The Pilgrims scratched across a run in the eighth on an RBI single by Harutaro Takahashi (Tokyo, Japan/Nihon Buzan), but Elms reliever Vinny Buono (Springfield, Mass./The MacDuffie School) did well to limit the damage. He got a pop up and a strike out to end the inning, stranding a pair of NEC runners.  

Buono pitched around a double in the final frame to secure his second save of the season. He allowed only one run on three hits and struck out three in 3.0 innings of relief. Guilmartin improved to 3-1 with the win. 

NEC starter Alex Perez (Leominster, Mass./Leominster) yielded four runs (three earned) on five hits and fanned four in 5.1 innings of work. He dropped to 2-3 overall on the season.