NEW LONDON, Conn. —

The United States Coast Guard Academy baseball team split their New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader with Wheaton College on Saturday, April 18th. The Bears in extra innings of game one, 8-9, before bouncing back for a 10-5 victory in game two.

Coast Guard moves to 11-15 on the season and 5-7 in the NEWMAC, while Wheaton moves to 20-9 and 8-4 overall. The Lyons will return in non-conference action on Wednesday, April 22nd, at UMass Dartmouth (16-17).

Game One: Bears 8, Wheaton 9 (10 Inn.); Box Score

The afternoon's opening game saw Coast Guard take an early eight-run lead, only for the Lyons to chip away until they overtook their hosts in the top of the tenth.

All eight of the Bears' runs came in the first inning, with all but one being earned for Wheaton's Aiden Cardoza due to a pair of errors. Coast Guard tallied seven runs in the opening frame, two of which were two-run doubles by Luke Percifield (Pinellas Park, Fla.) and Nate Stafford (Jupiter, Fla.).

Cardoza would return in the second and settle back in to make it through four innings of work. By the time he was pulled, the Lyons were able to cut the Bears' lead in half by scoring pairs of runs in the second and third innings. A four-run sixth inning erased the deficit, with Brayden Lewis tying it on a three-run homer to left-center.

The score stayed at eight apiece until the tenth inning, when Wheaton got a man on via walk. That man reached third following a pair of infield grounders, and Evan Jones drove him in with a single up the middle. Josh Fischer sent the Bears down 1-2-3 in the bottom half to pick up his fourth save. Evan Mello picked up the win while Alexander Smith (Fairfield, Ohio) was tabbed for the loss after 3.1 innings of relief work.

Game Two: Bears 10, Wheaton 5; Box Score

In a repeat of game one, both teams combined for 23 hits in a game two that saw the Bears belt two homers on the way to securing the doubleheader split.

Wheaton started the scoring in the top of the second with one crossing the plate during a bases loaded double play, but the Bears overtook them in the bottom half after Percifield scored on a balk and Stafford drove another in with a single through the right side. The Bears made it three one in the top third, but Ty Bellan equalized in Wheaton's next ups with a two-run double before a Marques Rodrigues RBI single helped the Lyons regain the upper hand.

Max Van Auken (Franklinville, N.J.) tied it for the Bears with a single through the right side to open up a four-run fourth inning. The rally was punctuated by a two-run shot down the line for Yadisson Karbalaieasghar (Coral Springs, Fla.), and Coast Guard added another in the fifth on a wild pitch. Wheaton scored on a wild pitch themselves in the sixth to make it a three-run game, but Carson Cho (Harmarket, Va.) hit the Bears' second home run of the day down the right field line to plate two.

Cho finished the second game 3-for-5, while Karbalaieasghar added a double for his two-hit game. Raymond Priddy (Chico, Calif.) improved to 2-2 after six full innings of work, while Braden Young moved to 3-2 due to pitching the four-run fourth.

Bears baseball will take the field again on Tuesday, April 21st, in road NEWMAC action at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (13-16, 2-8 NEWMAC). Coast Guard took last season's series with 7-2 and 9-4 wins.