SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The American International College baseball team earned a 6-5 Northeast-10 victory over the visiting Le Moyne Dolphins on Wednesday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets are now 16-17 overall and 7-13 in the conference, while Le Moyne moves to 18-20 overall and 11-9 in the NE-10.
The contest remained scoreless until the top of the fifth inning when senior Brian Stinson (Binghamton, N.Y.) hit a homerun over the left field fence to give the Dolphins a 1-0 lead. AIC knotted the contest at 1-1 in the bottom of the frame as sophomore
Lucas Vallas (East Northport, N.Y.) hit a sacrifice fly to left center to plate freshman
Eddie Ritch (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) who reached on a walk.
Le Moyne scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to gain a 4-1 lead over the Yellow Jackets. Senior Zack Wiley (Toluca Woods, Calif.) hit an RBI double up the middle, while Stinson hit an RBI single up the middle.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Kerlejza started the inning for AIC hitting a single up the middle and moved to second on Ritch's sacrifice bunt. Junior
Dave Clark (West Springfield, Mass.) hit a single to right field and advanced Kerlejza to third base. Junior
Cam MacDonald (Weymouth, Mass.) reached on an error by the third baseman and Kerlejza scored on the play to make it a 4-2 contest.
The Dolphins scored a run in the top of the eighth inning to push the lead to 5-2. In the bottom of the eighth inning junior
Dan Fenton (Agawam, Mass.) hit a double to left center field to plate two teammates to inch within one of Le Moyne. Clark hit an RBI single through the left side to score Fenton and tie the contest at 5-5.
The Dolphins could not produce any runs in the top of the ninth inning. Vallas walked in the bottom of the ninth to start the inning for AIC. Freshman
A.J. Hall (Millville, Mass.) pinch ran for Vallas and would advance to second on a throwing error over the first baseman's head in a fail attempt at a pickoff by the pitcher. Hall was crossed home on Kane's fielder's choice. The Yellow Jackets earned a 6-5 victory over the Dolphins.
Senior
Geoff McCowat (Sterling, Va.) would earn the win for AIC throwing 2.0 innings, while sophomore John Mildner (Newton, Mass.) took the loss for Le Moyne throwing 1.1 innings and allowing one run and striking out two.
AIC will head to Southern Connecticut on Friday afternoon for a Northeast-10 contest starting at 3:30 p.m.