On Wednesday April 11th, New England College baseball traveled to Lyndon State College for a doubleheader. The Pilgrims would split yet another series, winning the first game 9-3 and dropping the second game 5-4. The split moves the Pilgrims record to 17-7 (6-4 NAC) and improved Lyndon State to 7-11 (3-1 NAC).
In the first of two games the Pilgrims would hand Lyndon State their first North Atlantic Conference loss of the season. Jamie Carey would start on the mound for NEC and would throw another complete game. He would only allow two earned runs throughout seven innings and would strike out four batters. This would be Carey’s sixth win of the season, and improve his record to 6-2. It would also prove to be his fourth complete game of the season and third in a row.
The Pilgrims would provide Carey with more than enough run support, as the offense would be lead by Luis Atiles, who scored three runs, Nick Powers went 3-3 at the plate with a homerun and two runs scored and Manuel Andujar contributed three RBI’s. With the Pilgrims trailing 2-1 in the fourth inning they would score three runs on a RBI single by John Prentice, sacrifice fly by Christian Aybar and RBI single by Xavier Nunez. The game was still close, with NEC holding a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning when Andujar drove in two runs with a double. Nick Powers would add a homerun in the seventh inning before Xavier Nunez put an exclamation point on the win with a single that drove in two more runs to extend the lead to 9-3.
However, for the fourth straight doubleheader the Pilgrims failed to carry the momentum from the first game of the day into the second one. Jeam Castillo started for the Pilgrims but he was unable to make it out of the second inning, as Lyndon State would score five runs in the bottom of the second. Shaun Cormier would come in out of the bullpen and slow down the Lyndon State offense by not allowing an earned run for the five innings he pitched to complete the game.
The Pilgrims would fight back and make it a competitive game, trailing 5-0 in the top of the fourth Luis Atlies would score on a fielders choice, and only one batter later Stanley Vargas would score on an error to cut the lead to 5-2. With the score holding in the top of the sixth inning, Manuel Andujar would drive in Atiles and Powers with a double. This would cut the Lyndon State lead to 5-4, however that is as close as the Pilgrims would come.
NEC returns to action on Friday when they host a doubleheader against Colby Sawyer, who is 2-11 on the season and in last place of NAC baseball standings. The Pilgrims will look to bounce back from their loss and climb up from a tie of third place in the standings.
