Worcester State College
Baseball Game Recap
April 19, 2007
Lancer Baseball Falls to #12 EConn
(Courtesy
Eastern Connecticut Sports Information)
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Junior Trey Bongiovanni’s (Meriden, CT/Maloney HS) two-out pinch single in the bottom of the seventh-inning single scored freshman pinch runner Travis Horrigan (Roxbury, CT/Shepaug Valley Reg. HS) from second base to cap a two-run rally and give the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team a 6-5 non-conference victory and doubleheader sweep of Worcester State College Thursday night at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
In his first start of the season in the first game, sophomore lefty Mike Tingley (Rockville, CT/Rockville HS) allowed only two runs through seven innings in the longest stint of his career and Eastern (19-7) went ahead for good with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning in an 8-2 victory.
The second game was a scheduled seven-inning contest.
Ranked No. 12 nationally in Division III, Eastern has now won six straight and 15 of 17 up north. Worcester (9-14) has lost five straight.
Trailing 5-3 in the nightcap, the Warriors got one back on freshman shortstop Melvin Castillo’s (Danbury, CT/Danbury HS) third home run of the season – a two-out solo blast to left-center – and won the game in the bottom of the seventh on two hits, two walks (one intentional) and two Worcester errors.
Sophomore DH Shawn Gilblair’s (Windham, CT/Windham HS) run-scoring single down the left-field line and an outfield throwing error on the relay tied the second game at 5-5 in the seventh inning, and Bongiovanni ended the game in Eastern’s favor when he laced an 0-1 offering from losing pitcher Steve Minor (1-1) to left field that plated Horrigan from second.
Junior second baseman Zack Thomas (East Haddam, CT/Xavier HS) had pened the seventh by drawing a walk. With one out and pinch runner Jon Dalton (Standish, ME/Bonny Eagle HS) on first, Gilblair pulled a pitch down the right field line after falling behind in the count, 1-2. Dalton initially stopped at third, but then continued home with the tying run when the relay from right field got loose in the infield. Gilblair was then awarded second base on the play when Worcester was called for impeding Gilblair as he rounded first base. Minor retired Eastern sophomore first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY/Notre Dame HS) on a shallow fly ball to center for the second out, but Bongiovanni, pinch hitting for freshman third baseman John Parke (Middlefield, CT/Coginchaug Reg. HS), singled hard to left field on a one-strike pitch and Horrigan’s slide across the plate barely beat the throw from Worcester leftfielder Nick Caparell to catcher Kirk Monbleau.
Eastern had wiped out Worcester’s 1-0 second-game lead on Hobbes’ bases-clearing two-out, opposite-field double to left in the bottom of the first, but the Lancers went ahead 5-3 by scoring three times in the fifth on two singles and two hit-batsmen.
In the first game, Eastern took the lead for good by scoring twice in the fourth inning on four hits, and tacked on four more in the fifth on two hits, two walks and two Worcester errors to make a winner of Tingley (1-0). Gilblair and senior catcher Matt Cooney (Arlington, MA/Arlington HS) both doubled and scored in the fourth and senior centerfielder Randy Re (Danbury, CT/Danbury HS) and Hobbes each doubled in the fifth. Hobbes drove in two runs with his double.
Tingley, who had pitched only 2 1/3 innings this season prior to Thursday, allowed eight hits – five of them when Worcester scored twice to tie the game in the third inning -- while fanning six and walking two to improve his career record to 3-0. Tingley stranded a runner at third base in the first by striking out Worcester’s No. 3 and No. 4 hitters, and faced the minimum nine batters over his final three innings of work.
Hobbes, Gilblair, Re and junior rightfielder Ismael Bolorin (Manchester, CT/Manchester HS) each had three of Eastern’s 21 hits in the doubleheader, while Thomas reached four times with three walks and a hit, scored three times, drove in a run and stole a base. The team-leader with 27 RBI this season, Hobbes drove in five runs with his two doubles. Gilblair and Bolorin both reached safely four times with three hits and a walk and Gilblair scored three runs.
Appearing in his staff-leading 15th game, junior righty Jason LaVorgna (North Haven, CT/Avon Old Farms) was credited with the second-game win. LaVorga stranded two runners when he entered the game with two out in the sixth and the Warriors trailing 5-4, and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning before Eastern rallied in the bottom of the inning.
Eastern visits Rhode Island College Saturday at noon for a Little East Conference doubleheader. The Warriors lead the conference with a 7-0 record.
The left-handed Gilblair (5-1, 2.54) and sophomore righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich HS) are expected to open on the mound. Jagodzinski is 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA.
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