WATERTOWN, Mass. — Southern Vermont College fell 7-2 Wednesday afternoon at the hands of Eastern Nazarene College in non-conference baseball action played at Victory Field.
The Lions snap a three-game losing streak to improve to 5-7 on the year while the Mountaineers move to 4-4 overall.
Southern Vermont senior center fielder Sal Sciara (Massapequa, New York) went 2-4 with the stick, adding a walk, a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base to his line. Freshman designated hitter Eric Fields (Lakewood, California) was 1-2 at the dish with a pair of walks while freshman third baseman Jake Sisk (Tallahassee, Florida) scored the other SVC run.
Pat Yee (Lynnfield, Massachusetts) led Eastern Nazarene offensively with three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored; the senior came up a dinger shy of the cycle on the day. Jose Arebalo (Brentwood, California) posted three hits in the game and scored one run. Rocco Martinelli (Panama City, Panama) finished with two base knocks, two RBIs and one run while Justin Wagner (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) notched two hits and drove in one run.
Eastern Nazarene got on the board in the home half of the second inning, pushing across one run to snag a 1-0 lead. Wagner raked a two-out single down the left field line to drive in Martinelli for his team-leading 10th RBI of the season.
Southern Vermont grabbed the lead in the top of the fifth with its two runs scored on the day. Sciara singled up the middle to plate Sisk from second base before scampering home from third on a wild pitch later in the inning.
The Lions responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame, however. Jeremy Wagner (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) came in to score on an infield single, and Yee hammered a triple to the deep gap in right-center to score two more. Yee then dashed home on a sacrifice squeeze bunt to extend the lead to 5-2.
Eastern Nazarene manufactured two scores in the seventh inning to stretch the margin to 7-2 when Martinelli laced a triple to centerfield to plate the pair. Neither side would score through the final inning and a half as ENC secured the victory.
In his second start on the hill, rookie Antonio Ortegon (Haltom City, Texas) tossed five innings and struck out four batters while surrendering three hits and two runs for the win (2-0). SVC junior Chris Bradt (Glenmont, New York) suffered the loss (0-1) after giving up the go-ahead run in the fifth, and Mountaineer junior right-hander Brandon Casella (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) went a solid three innings with the start, striking out four Lions batters and only walking one.
SVC is set to return to Victory Field this weekend for a three-game New England Collegiate Conference series with Newbury College; Saturday's doubleheader begins at 3:30 p.m.