Baseball - 2007 ECAC Division III New England Champions



Apr 14, 2007

WPI Splits NEWMAC Series with MIT 7-1 and 9-11

WPI 7, MIT 1  Box Score 
MIT 9, WPI 11      Box Score

Worcester, MA --- MIT scored eight runs over the final three innings to help rally for an 11-9 victory over host WPI in the nightcap of a NEWMAC doubleheader Saturday afternoon.  In the opener, Conor Fahey (Cumberland, RI) fanned a career-best 12 batters in a 7-1 WPI win.

Fahey was dominant in game one, retiring the final 13 batters of the contest.  He allowed just three hits, all to consecutive batters in the top of the third, and walked just two on the day. 

With the score tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the third, WPI used RBI doubles from Ryan Rainone (Oakville, CT) and Cody McGregor (Westfield, MA) to tally three runs.  WPI would tack on three more in the fourth keyed by a RBI single by Ethan Brown (Lunenburg, MA).

Fahey improves to 3-2 on the season while MIT starter Chris D'Annunzio (Scotch Plains, NJ) (1-3) was saddled with the loss after allowing four runs in three innings of work.

In the night cap, MIT rallied from 7-1 and 9-3 deficits with a pair of runs in the seventh, five in the eighth and one in the ninth, to earn the split.  They pounded out 20 hits in contest including three each from Steven Nunez (Tulare, CA), Jason Witzberger (Wheeling, WV), David Nole (Torrington, CT) and D'Annunzio.

In the eighth inning, Witzberger tied the game with a two-run double off the top of the right field fence.  MIT then scored the winning run when Nole tapped an infield single to third. Jay Turner (Holliston, MA) yielded just one earned run over seven innings to improve to 4-0 on the season.  Nunez retired six of seven batters in the last two innings to pick up his third save.

Thomas Whiting (Farmington Hill, MI) was credited with the loss, and dropped to 1-1 on the season.  Brown totaled a pair of hits and three RBI in the nightcap for WPI while Paul Galligan (Weymouth, MA) scored three runs.  Matt Fiore (Wakefield, MA) collected a pair of hits in both contests.

With the split, WPI remains in second place in the NEWMAC with a 6-3 record and a 13-14 mark overall.  MIT is now 8-8 on the season and 4-4 in NEWMAC play.

WPI returns to action on Sunday with a home contest versus Worcester State.  The start time, originally scheduled for noon, has been moved to 10am due to forecasted poor weather.  Both WPI and MIT have key conference matches on Tuesday.  WPI will host first-place Wheaton while MIT entertains Coast Guard in a match of teams tied for third place.