WATERTOWN, Mass. — The Southern Vermont College baseball team dropped its New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opener Saturday afternoon, losing 2-1 to Newbury College at Victory Field.
Newbury improves to 8-10 on the season, 4-4 in NECC play, while SVC drops to 4-5 (0-1 NECC).
What was supposed to be a league doubleheader turned into a single nine-inning contest as the teams played through an early-spring snow dusting in the outskirts of Boston. The regularly-scheduled twin bill will take place Sunday at Victory Field to conclude the Conference series, first pitch slated for 9 a.m.
The Mountaineers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a wild pitch and held onto that advantage for most of the game's remainder. NC tacked up a pair on a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth to grab a late upper hand before closing it out for the win.
SVC senior first baseman Cody LaBadia (Howes Cave, N.Y.) went 2-4 with the run scored while classmate and center fielder Sal Sciara (Massapequa, N.Y.) was 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Junior third baseman Richard Rios (Pico Rivera, Calif.) and sophomore catcher Anthony Mercuri (Ridge, N.Y.) were both 1-3 at the dish in the effort.
Mountaineer sophomore righty Joshua Hay (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) went a solid 3.2 innings on the bump with the start, giving up just two hits and no runs. Classmate reliever Dylan Angelo (Ft. Johnson, N.Y.) suffered the loss (0-1) after giving up the go-ahead run during his first four innings of the season; he struck out five batters while Hay recorded two strikeouts on the day. Nighthawk senior Danny Lamb (Stoneham, Mass.) went the distance for Newbury, striking out five while giving up just one run (unearned) on six hits.
Neither team could manufacture any scoring until SVC tacked up one in the visitors' half of the fourth. LaBadia hit a one-out single before advancing to second on an NC error, and he moved up to third when Rios grounded out to short. The senior captain then scored on a wild pitch during the ensuing at bat for the Mountaineers to take the marginal advantage.
Newbury was able to work a runner to third in both the fourth and fifth innings and then saw a Nighthawk reach second in the six and seventh. But SVC was able to keep NC off the board despite the four runners in scoring position, clinging to the 1-0 upper hand.
A lead-off single in the eighth would come back to hurt Southern Vermont after an error moved Newbury senior first baseman Cameron D'Agostino (Salisbury, Mass.) up to second. He and senior left fielder Steven Broy (Gorham, Maine) advanced a base on a subsequent ground-out to first, and the pair came in to score on the next at bat when junior catcher Craig Barnett (Victoria, Australia) tagged a double to put his team ahead.
Southern Vermont got the tying run on base in the top of the ninth, but Lamb induced a pair of ground-outs for the complete-game victory.