NEW LONDON, N.H. – April 22, 2015 – The Colby-Sawyer baseball team split a North Atlantic Conference (NAC) twin bill with New England College on Wednesday afternoon. The Pilgrims took the first game 8-1, while Colby-Sawyer won the second 4-2.   

Colby-Sawyer goes to 1-25 overall and 1-15 in the NAC. The Pilgrims are now 8-19 overall and 5-13 in conference play. The two teams will play another doubleheader tomorrow in Henniker at 2:00 p.m.

GAME 1 – NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE 8, COLBY-SAWYER 1

New England College put six runs on the board in its first at-bat on five hits and an error. Five different players recorded an RBI in the frame.

Colby-Sawyer got a run back in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from senior Rob Wallace (Tewksbury, Mass.) that scored freshman Connor Henry (East Boston, Mass.).

The visitors added two more in the top of the seventh on a two-run single by senior Steve DeLuca (Coxsackie, N.Y.) to secure the 8-1 win. DeLuca finished the game with a pair of hits and a team best three RBI.
Sophomore Vincent Backert (Shelton, Conn.) went 2-for-4 and scored twice for the Pilgrims.

Sophomore Nathan Frongillo (Haverhill, Mass.), freshman Brendan Thurber (Ashland, Mass.) and senior Brett Emmertz (Falmouth, Maine) had two hits apiece for Colby-Sawyer.

Senior Brandon Quirk (Whitman, Mass.) went the distance for the Pilgrims and gave up one run on seven hits. He struck out 10 and recorded at least one strikeout in six of the seven innings.

Freshman Chris Hood (Manchester, N.H.) took the loss after allowing the first six batters to reach, but junior Mike Peters (Melrose, Mass.) pitched seven strong innings of relief. He gave up two runs and struck out six.

GAME 2 – COLBY-SAWYER 4, NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE 2

The Chargers opened the scoring in their first at-bat with an RBI single from Brett Emmertz that scored Nathan Frongillo.

After the Pilgrims knotted the game at 1-1 in the top of the second on a run scoring single from sophomore Conor Crouse (West Haven, Conn.), the Chargers retook the lead in the bottom of the frame. Junior Jeff Dunn (Bellingham, Mass.) reached on a double to right center and came around to score on a single from freshman Tim Donovan (Litchfield, N.H.).

Brendan Thurber began the home half of the third with a double to left and scored on a single from Brett Emmertz. Two batters later, freshman Jackson Musco (Litchfield, N.H.) knocked in Emmertz with a single to center to put the Chargers on top 4-1.
In their final at-bat, the Pilgrims put a run across after pair of walks and a run scoring bunt single from freshman Joe Paliotte (Warwick, R.I.).

Colby-Sawyer pitcher Mike Bowse (Merrimack, N.H.) got the Pilgrim leadoff hitter to ground out to end the game and give the Chargers their first victory of the season. Bowse tossed a complete game six-hitter.

Francesco DiRe (Barrington, R.I.) was saddled with the loss for NEC, but sophomore Stanley Petteway (Waterbury, Conn.) threw two innings of one-hit relief.