AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Juniors Doug Papuga (Branford, Conn.) and Ben Danker each collected four hits, with Papuga driving in three runs as the Wentworth baseball team ran its win streak to four games (4-2) with an 11-10 victory over St. Joseph's of Maine (3-4).
In a game that took 3:36 to play through an off and on rain and saw
both teams combine to throw 373 pitches, the Leopards squandered a
chance to go on the board in their first at bat, leaving the bases
loaded. Junior Matt Jordan
(Concord, N.H.) drew a one-out walk and went to third on a Danker
single to center. After a strikeout, junior Jake McManus
(Hopkinton, N.H.) drew a walk, but a ground out ended the
threat.
St. Joseph's which entered the game receiving votes in this week's
D3Baseball.com Top 25 Poll, took advantage of a two-out error to
score a pair of unearned runs. The Monks loaded the bases on three
consecutive singles and freshman Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.)
would reach on a dropped fly ball, which allowed senior Ben
Grant-Roy (Biddeford, Maine) and junior Ian Lee (Hampden, Maine) to
score. A ground out would end the inning.
Wentworth sliced the lead in half in the second inning when Papuga
tripled home junior Mike Diodato
(Asbury, N.J.) and would take a 3-2 lead an inning later when
Danker hit an RBI double and would come around to score on a
McManus base hit. Pratt tied the game in the home half of the third
with a sacrifice fly that scored junior Chris Campbell (Rochester,
N.H.).
The top of the fourth inning saw the Leopards take the lead for
good when Diodato led off with a walk and went to second on a
sacrifice bunt off the bat of sophomore Conner
Flisnik (Whitesboro, N.Y.). A Papuga single moved Diodato to
third and he scored on a Jordan RBI single. An inning later
Wentworth went ahead, 8-3, when Danker scored on a wild pitch and
Diodato, who had a two-run triple, scored on a wild pitch.
St. Joseph's got single runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to
cut the lead to 8-5. In the fifth inning, senior Pat Moran
(Winterport, Maine) had an RBI single, which scored Lee, while an
inning later junior Eric LaBatte (Rochester, N.H.) had an infield
single and eventually came around to score on an error.
The teams each had a two-run seventh, as Diodato, who reached on an
error, came around to score on a Flisnik double. Flisnik came
around to score on a Papuga double to make it a 10-5 game. LaBatte
provided the Monks' two runs with one swing of the bat as his first
home run of the season would also score Moran and cut the lead to
10-7. St. Joseph's pulled within one in the home half of the eighth
on an RBI groundout by Pratt and an RBI double from Moran.
Leading 10-9 heading into the ninth inning, Wentworth tacked on
what would serve as the winning run when Flisnik led off with his
second consecutive double and scored on a Papuga single to make it
11-9. Senior Scott Borges
(Westport, Mass.) came on to close the game out for the Leopards
and allowed an unearned run when Campbell scored on a double by
Grant-Roy. The tying run would be stranded at second when Borges
earned his second save in the last three games with a
strikeout.
Jordan went 3-for-5 to help pace a Wentworth offensive attack that
pounded out 18 hits. McManus, Diodato, and Flisnik each had two
hits, while Diodato scored four runs and drove in a par. For St.
Joseph's, Lee was 4-for-6 while Grant-Roy and Moran each had three
hits.
Senior Mo
Gardner (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) picked up the win (1-0) for the
Leopards. He scattered 10 hits while allowing four runs (two
earned) and struck out five in four innings of work. Senior Chris
Sandini (Upton, Mass.) would allow five runs (four earned) on
six hits and struck out five in three innings of work, while Borges
gave up a run on one hit and had a pair of strikeouts. Freshman
Sean Drake (Lebanon, N.H.) took the loss in relief (0-1) for the
Monks. He gave up one run on one hit and walked a pair in 1.1
innings of work.