Baseball team beats WPI
MIT at 18-14 overall and 9-10 in NEWMAC
MIT received a strong pitching performance from junior Aric J. Dama in game one and then unleashed a 16-hit attack in game two that resulted in a sweep over WPI in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader. MIT improved to 18-14 overall and 9-10 in the NEWMAC while WPI fell to 21-15 and 9-9 after the final conference games of the season.
Dama picked up his third win of the season for MIT in the opener, going all the way in the seven-inning contest. He allowed just four hits and one earned run while striking out seven without issuing a walk. Sophomore Eric Johnson also went all the way for WPI, giving up eight hits and three earned runs over his six innings on the hill.
MIT opened the game with a run in the bottom of the first when senior Torre M. Swanson led the game off with a single, eventually making his way to third with two down. Ricardo J. Perez ’13 then brought him in with a single. Kyle J. Parent ’15 made it 2-0 in the second with a home run to left.
MIT got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Swanson led off again with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice, and then stole third. Creed J. Mangrum ’15 legged out an infield hit that was not able to score Swanson, and proceeded to steal second, beating the throw to the bag. The throw down was high and got away, allowing Swanson to trot home to put MIT back up by two.
WPI got back to within one in the fourth when senior Mitch McClune was hit by a pitch and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch. MIT answered with a run in the fifth when Karl M. Sorensen ’15 led off with a single and eventually reached third on a sacrifice and a ground out, coming home on a WPI fielding error. Dama then finished the game off by retiring the last six hitters he faced.
MIT scored in the first inning of game two as well, getting back-to-back doubles from Sean P. Karson ’14 and Bryan A. Macomber ’12. MIT scored three more times in the third to go up 4-0, getting RBI singles from Karson and Mangrum, with another run scoring on a wild pitch.
Senior Kyle Bartosik got WPI back in the game with a two-run single in the fourth. In the fifth, WPI tied it up, getting another two-out, two-run base hit, this time off the bat of David Trujillo to make it 4-4.
In the bottom half of the inning, MIT broke the game open with five runs as it batted around. Mangrum and Perez started the inning off with a single and a double before Macomber was hit by a pitch to load the bases. That brought sophomore Sam Miraglia out of the WPI bullpen to face freshman Hayden K. Cornwell. He hit into a force play to bring home one run, with James R. McKinney ’13 and Adam J. Hansborough ’12 following with run-scoring singles that made it 7-4. Swanson then finished off the scoring with a two-out, two-run double down the left field line.
Brandon M. Lowe ’14 came out of the bullpen to get the final out of the fifth inning and wound up picking up his third victory of the season. Henry Zhu ’13 blanked WPI over the final four innings, allowing three hits while striking out four.
Senior Christopher M. Hendrix started for MIT and went 4.2 innings, allowing nine hits and four runs while striking out four and walking three. Freshman Andrew Portera was the starter and loser for WPI, allowing nine hits and seven runs over four innings, striking out one.
MIT will host Fisher College on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in its next contest. WPI will play Nichols College at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday in a game that will be played at Holy Cross.