Pittsfield, Mass. - Junior 1B Kent Graham (Longmeaodw, Mass.)
went 3-for-5 with four runs and five RBI to lead the Trinity
College Bantams to a 13-6 win over the Wesleyan University
Cardinals in the first game of the New England Small College
Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Baseball Championship Tournament this
afternoon at Wahconah Park. Trinity, ranked No. 6 in the
nation, improves to 27-5 and advances to the winner's bracket game
tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. at the Williams College Ephs.
Williams downed Tufts, 18-5, in the other NESCAC First Round game
this afternoon. Wesleyan, now 19-15, will play Tufts in an
elimination game tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. at Wahconah Park.
Trinity opened up a 6-0 lead after two innings, including two in
the second on a two-ru double by Graham, and added five more in the
sixth frame en route to the victory. The Bantams, who had
split a doubleheader against the Cardinals, 9/6-5/7, at home on
Sunday took advantage of four Wesleyan errors in the game while
pounding out 13 hits. Trinity freshman lefty starter James
Ramsey (Belmont, Mass.) earned the win on the mound with 5.2
innings of work.
Bantam junior OF Jack Abbott (Longmeadow, Mass.) led off the
bottom of the first with a hit batsman off Wesleyan senior starter
Dusty Mones (Trumbull, Conn.), and the next three Trinity batters
singled for a 2-0 Bantam lead. A sacrifice fly by Bantam
junior DH Joe Markovich (Mill Creek, Wash.) gave Trinity a 3-0 lead
after its first at-bats. Trinity junior OF Matt Sullivan
(North Reading, Mass.) doubled with two outs in the second frame,
and Graham's double two batters later increased the Trinity lead to
5-0. Bantam senior co-captain 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland,
Maine) singled through the hole to score Graham.
Wesleyan halved the lead with three runs in the fourth inning,
including a pair on a two-run double by senior co-captain Garrett
Lamborn (Stevenson, Md.). The Cardinals scored one more in
the top of the sixth, but a diving catch by Sullivan in deep
left-center field, a baserunning blunder by Wesleyan, and a
strikeout by Trinity junior LHP Derek Anderson (Great Falls, Va.)
on the first batter he faced kept the visitors from a big
inning. Abbott started the bottom of the sixth with an
infield hit and scored on a single by Graham. A two-run error
at third base by the Cardinals, a double, steal, a wild pitch, and
a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by freshman Kevin Mortimer (Spencer,
Mass.) gave Trinity an 11-4 advantage.
Both teams scored twice in the seventh on back-to-back RBI
doubles by Lamborn and freshman Phil Rosenblum (Berwyn, Pa.) and an
RBI double by Graham and an RBI single by Piacentini.
Wesleyan loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Trinity
junior Bantam RHP Conor O'Sullivan-Pierce (Cambridge, Mass.)
pitched out of trouble with three strikeouts.
