BB: Lasell splits two games Wednesday in Florida

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Lasell College baseball team split a pair of games Wednesday in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic, coming from behind to defeat the Coast Guard Academy, 11-8, before falling to Alfred State (N.Y.), 6-5.

The Lasers scored seven runs, all unearned, in the eighth inning to defeat Coast Guard. Lasell then fell behind Alfred State early on and a late rally fell short. The Lasers are now 4-2 on the Florida trip and 6-2 overall, while Coast Guard had its four-game win streak stopped to drop to 4-2 and Alfred State won its fourth in a row to even its mark at 5-5.

Lasell is back in action in Florida on Friday, March 15, with a doubleheader against St. Joseph's (L.I.), beginning at 3 p.m., before wrapping up the trip Saturday, March 16, with a single game against Edgewood College at 9 a.m.

Game 1 – Lasell 11, Coast Guard 8

Coast Guard's Jeremy Lhotka, who was 10 for his last 10, hammered the first pitch the saw for a towering grand slam to left field in the bottom of the first to give Coast Guard a 4-1 lead.

The Lasers scored single runs in each of the first four innings. Senior Brett Sherron (Howard Beach, N.Y.) singled home a run in the first inning, and sophomore Wyatt Sihvonen (Lebanon, Conn.), freshman Matt Motyka (Vernon, Conn.) and senior David Marsell (Baldwinsville, N.Y.)  brought home runs with infield grounders in the next three innings. The Bears would add a run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Dylan Roberts and led 5-4 after four innings.

The Bears maintained that 5-4 lead into the eighth before Lasell sent 12 men to the plate facing four different Coast Guard pitchers to hang seven unearned runs in the frame for an 11-5 lead. Senior Andre Marchesseault (Cheshire, Conn.), junior Joe Sullivan (East Sandwich, Mass.) and freshman Matt Bischof (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) all had RBI singles in the inning, and Sihvonen capped the rally with a two-run single.

Coast Guard tacked on two runs in the eighth and one in the ninth, but the Bears saw their four-game win streak snapped.

Junior Lorenzo Davis (West Haven, Conn.) started for Lasell and worked 5.1 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits, striking out three. Classmate Patrick Colvin (Lenoxdale, Mass.) earned the win (1-0) in relief, allowing just one hit in two-thirds on an inning.

Game 2 – Alfred State 6, Lasell 5

Michalek singled in the first inning and later scored on a wild pitch to give Lasell an early lead, but the Pioneers plated four runs in the second inning. The Lasers answered with two in the top of the third to cut the margin to 4-3, as Marsell knocked in a run on an RBI single before scoring himself on a wild pitch.

After the Pioneers added two more runs in the fourth inning, Lasell attempted a comeback with single runs in the fifth and eighth innings. Sherron cracked an RBI double in the fifth and Sihvonen hit a sac fly in the eighth, but the Laser rally fell short.

Senior Evan Michalek (Berlin, Conn.) and Marsell collected two hits to lead the Lasers, while Sherron and sophomore Jimmy Griffin (Worcester, Mass.) each hit a double.

Junior Chris O'Connor (Duxbury, Mass.) started and pitched three innings, suffering the loss (0-1).

-- 30 --