Wheaton 10, WPI 3 - NEWMAC Tournament

Box Score

Norton, MA --- Six Wheaton College baseball players recorded at least three hits and the second-seeded Lyons pounded out 22 overall en route to a 10-3 victory over fifth seed Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Wednesday's opening round of the double-elimination New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament at Sidell Stadium.
 
Ranked 12th nationally by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), Wheaton improves to 28-7 and will host third-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m.  WPI, which is now 16-16-1, plays in an elimination game tomorrow at top seed Babson College.  MIT defeated number-four Springfield College, 11-2, while sixth-seeded Clark University upset Babson, 12-11.
 
The Wheaton offense tagged Engineer junior ace Conor Fahey (Cumberland, RI), who entered the game with an 8-1 mark and 3.09 earned run average, with nine runs and 16 hits, chasing the righthander with two down in the fifth inning.  The Lyons scored seven times on eight hits in the frame to break open a 2-2 game.  Wheaton senior ace Chris McDonough (Weymouth, MA) went six innings to collect his fifth win of the season, allowing two runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk.
 
 Wheaton sophomore Paul Malaguti (Andover, MA), who went 4-for-6 with two RBI and a pair of runs, opened the game with one of three straight singles before junior Robert Foote's (Walpole, MA) fielder's choice scored Malaguti.  The Lyons again loaded the bags with nobody out in the second on a trio of singles but could only push one run across, as senior Jake Yagjian's (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional) sacrifice fly to right field made it a 2-0 game.
 
The Engineers knotted the game in the third, using two singles from senior Brandon Steacy (Framingham, MA) and freshman Bryan Watkins (Belmont, MA) and a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners with one down.  A run-scoring grounder to second by sophomore Mike Swanton (Foxboro, MA) and an RBI double off the bat of junior Scott McNee (Falmouth, MA) knotted the contest at two.
 
McDonough pitched around a bases-loaded jam in the fifth by forcing a groundout to third to end the threat before the hosts blew the game open in the bottom half.  Wheaton's first five batters posted hits, with junior Nick Pecora's (Highland Park, NJ) two-run double off the right center field fence serving as the big blow.  Malaguti slammed his third home run of the spring, a two-run shot over the scoreboard beyond the right field fence, and Foote, senior Ken Depasse (Holden, MA) and freshman Eric Laliberte (Nashua, NH) had one RBI each in the frame.
 
Depasse's first career dinger in the sixth pushed Wheaton's lead out to 10-2 before WPI sophomore Cody McGregor (Westfield, MA) plated Watkins in the seventh for the final scoring.  Lyon freshman southpaw Kevin Calabro (Andover, MA) yielded one run on three hits with two strikeouts and three walks in 2.1 innings of relief, while sophomore Jon Shepard (Salisbury, MA) closed out the ninth with a groundout and strikeout.
 
Depasse finished the game 3-for-3 with two RBI and a run, Laliberte went 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, while Foote, Yagjian and senior Scott Guillerault (South Portland, ME) rapped three hits each, with Foote driving in two and scoring one.  For WPI, Watkins was 3-for-5 with two runs, Steacy batted 2-for-4 with a run, McNee plated a pair, and senior Ryan Rainone (Oakville, CT) went 2-for-5.

Release Courtesy Wheaton Sports Information