NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. —
The United States Coast Guard Academy baseball team picked up an always important New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) victory on Tuesday, April 21st, with a 13-5 result against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The offensive effort marks the third consecutive game where the Bears have piled on at least eight runs.
Coast Guard improves to 12-15 on the season and 6-7 in the NEWMAC, while WPI drops to 13-17 overall and 2-9 in-league. The Engineers will look to bounce back on Thursday the 23rd when they host non-conference opponents Eastern Connecticut State University (20-10-1).
A game that saw no shortage of offense ended with both teams combining for 29 hits. Leading the way for Coast Guard was first baseman
Nate Stafford (Jupiter, Fla.), who went 4-for-5 with two home runs, seven runs batted in, and three runs scored. One of those home runs was a grand slam in a five-run fourth inning for the Bears
Stafford was one of five cadet-athletes to record multiple hits in the contest.
Carson Cho (Haymarket, Va.) and
Max Van Auken (Franklinville, N.J.) both had three, with Cho recording a double and Van Auken homering once and doubling twice. Following them were
Ayden Gurevich (Lake Worth Beach, Fla.) and
Luke Percifield (Pinellas Park, Fla.) with a pair of two-hit games. Gurevich drove in two runs on the day, with one of them rounding out the fourth inning boom for the Bears.
On the mound,
Tyler Michalek (Fort Worth, Tex.) picked up the win to improve to 1-1 on the season after allowing one hit over three innings pitched.
Conor Watts (Mahopac, N.Y.) relieved him for two frames to bridge the gap to
Jackson Dorsey (Newark, Del.), who closed the door with four innings of one-run ball for his sixth save of the season.
Stafford put his team on the board in the first with an RBI single to left center, and he added one more in the third inning by racing home from third on a deep sacrifice fly behind first base off the bat of
Yadisson Karbalaieasghar (Coral Springs, Fla.). WPI got one back in the bottom half on a
Chuck Cappello single to center field.
The Bears opened the fourth inning by loading the bases with one out for Stafford, who thanked his team for setting the table with a grand slam to left field for his third home run of the season. Van Auken followed with a double and Karbalaieasghar singled to put runners on the corners for Gurevich, who brought Van Auken home with a single.
WPI was able to cut their deficit down to three with a one-run fourth and a two-run fifth, but Stafford and Gurevich erased it in the sixth. After Cho led off with a double, Stafford connected for his second home run of the season. Van Auken was hit by a pitch and made it around to third base, needing just a light jog home when Gurevich singled to right-center to make it 10-4.
Van Auken got the Bears over ten with his second longball of the year in the eighth inning, and he'd play a part in two more runs scoring for Coast Guard in the ninth when the sophomore's bases loaded ground ball down the right field line snuck under the first baseman's glove. Cappello closed out the offensive showings for the day by sending one over the fence in the bottom half to cut the score down to 13-5.
Coast Guard baseball will look to keep the bats hot on Thursday the 23rd when they travel to Roger Williams University (13-15) for non-conference action. It will be first meeting between the two program's since 2000, which ended in a 5-1 win for the Hawks.
