Wheaton nips Montclair State, 13-12 behind 21-hit attack in slugfest

March 15, 2008

PHOENIX, AZ- The Wheaton College baseball team needed each and every one of its 13 runs Saturday afternoon against Montclair State University, as the Lyons' 13-12 victory was their second straight and third in four tries. Ranked 13th nationally in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll, Wheaton evened its mark at 4-4, while the Red Hawks lost their fourth straight one-run game to fall to 1-4.

The two teams combined for 36 hits during the slugfest, as the squads scored in 13 of the 17 frames. All nine of the Blue and White starters recorded at least one hit, while eight turned in multiple-hit performances.

Freshman Sean Munley's (Trenton, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) two-run single through the right side in the home half of the eighth gave the Lyons their first lead of the game, an 11-10 edge with nobody out. A sacrifice fly from sophomore Jeff Lieneck (Foxboro, MA/Xavierian Brothers) extended Wheaton's lead to two, which ended up looming large, as Montclair State cut its deficit to one in the ninth.

A pair of upperclassman relievers combined on a win and save during the final two innings, as senior Keith Pescosolido (Newton, MA/Newton North) picked up the victory and junior Jared Barnes (North Attleboro, MA/Bishop Feehan) the save. Pescosolido fanned a batter to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, while Barnes forced his final batter to ground out to third in the ninth en route to his first career save.

The Lyons played catch up through most of the game, falling behind 5-1 after two innings before plating three runs in the third to make it a one-run contest. The game's run production between the teams in the middle three innings was identical, as the Red Hawks held a slim 8-7 edge after six frames. Wheaton outscored Montclair State, 3-2 in the seventh to knot the game at 10 before pushing three more across in the eighth. The Lyons and Red Hawks combined for 13 extra-base hits.

Senior Jake Yagjian (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional) went 4-for-5 with three runs to lead Wheaton, while Lieneck was 3-for-4 with two RBI, two runs and a double. Junior Robert Foote (Walpole, MA/Walpole) batted 3-for-5 with three RBI and a triple, while Munley, senior Scott Guillerault (South Portland, ME/South Portland), junior Nick Pecora (Highland Park, NJ/Immaculata), sophomore Paul Malaguti (Andover, MA/Andover) and freshman Hadi Raad (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Hastings) had two base knocks apiece.

Wheaton completes its 10-game southwestern swing with a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon. The Lyons take on 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins University at 10:30 a.m. and regional foe Western New England College at 2:00 p.m.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 3/16/08.
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