BROCKTON, Mass. – After getting behind early in the game, Southern Vermont College came back for a 9-7 win at Newbury College Friday night in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) baseball action at Campanelli Stadium.
With the win, SVC is 1-0 in the conference, 6-8 overall, and Newbury falls to 0-4 in league play, 4-10 on the 2013 season.
The Mountaineers went down early, surrendering a run in the bottom of the first with a double by Nighthawk freshman third baseman Ryan Zahornasky (Shelton, Conn.), knocking in sophomore second baseman Michael Perillo (Mansfield, Mass.) to go up 1-0.
SVC would respond right away in the following half inning when a lead-off walk by sophomore right fielder Roland Hernandez (Pico Rivera, Calif.) led to a Mountaineer run when he scored from third on a grounder by senior catcher Corey D. Briggs (Wood River, R.I.).
Newbury would take another lead in the bottom of the third with a Perillo single to score the first, a Zahornasky triple to bring Perillo in for the second, and another triple by sophomore shortstop Steven Broy (Gorham, Maine) to score the third run of the inning, putting NC ahead 4-1.
Three complete frames were played without a run being scored before Southern Vermont closed the gap with a two-run top of the seventh. Sophomore shortstop Chris Nicastro (Cranford, N.J.) roped a double to left to score sophomore left fielder Jared Hayen (Esperance, N.Y.), and senior first baseman Corey Armstrong (Bennington, Vt.) then brought Nicastro in with a single.
Those runs were quickly nullified as the Nighthawks responded with two of their own in the following bottom half of the inning off a two-run shot by Broy, making it 6-4 in Newbury's favor.
Southern Vermont continued to fight back in the top of the eighth as pinch-hitting freshman AJ Woslegar (East Hampton, Conn.) knocked in Hernandez with a single to right, and D. Briggs followed with a two-run double. Nicastro soon after singled to the right field gap to score two and then scored from third when Armstong reached on a Newbury error to put SVC ahead 9-6.
Mountaineer senior reliever Dave Northup (Richmond, R.I.) came out and struck out two Nighthawk batters in the bottom of the frame, sending the game to the ninth with Southern Vermont clinching the three-run lead.
After the Mountaineers were retired in the front end of the inning, senior right fielder Matthew Clawson (Tolland, Conn.) singled for the Nighthawks to ignite the offensive momentum. He would come around to score to minimize the Mountaineers lead to 9-7, but Northup was able to close it out and give SVC the conference victory.
Northup picked up his first win on the season (1-1) out of the bullpen, allowing three runs on six hits in 5.2 innings of work. He struck out 10 and only walked three in his appearance. Newbury senior reliever Zach Griesche (Niskayuna, N.Y.) suffers the loss (0-1) after giving up three runs without recording an out.
Southern Vermont continued its season story of running the bases aggressively, going 8-9 on stolen base attempts. D. Briggs swiped three on the evening to go along with his three RBIs and run scored. Nicastro went 2-5 with a walk, knocking in three runs and scoring another two. Hernandez was 3-4 with a walk and two runs scored, adding another double to his conference-leading season total (11). Hayen was 1-3 with two walks, two runs scored and two stolen bases.
Clawson and Broy each went 3-5 on the day with a run scored for Newbury, and Broy added three RBIs. Zahornasky was 2-4 with a walk on the day with two runs scored and another pair batted in.
Southern Vermont and Newbury match up for a twin-bill Saturday at Campanelli Stadium with 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. contests to conclude the season series.