NEWTON, Mass. (4/5/14) – The Lasell College baseball team swept a pair of Great Northeast Athletic Conference contests against Norwich University on Saturday afternoon. The Lasers captured a pitcher's duel in the opener, winning 1-0 the outslugged the Cadets to win 9-4 in the second game of the twinbill. Lasell improved to 7-8 overall and 2-2 in conference games while the Cadets slipped to 2-7 on the season and 0-3 in league contests.
Game One – Lasell 1 – Norwich 0
Dan Gagnon (Pomfret Center, Conn.) singled, walked twice and scored the only run of the game for the Lasers, and Billy Uberti (Newton, Mass.) notched the game-winning RBI in the 1-0 victory. Eric Howard (Newton, Mass.) improved to 2-0 on the season, throwing a complete game shutout on the mound for Lasell. Howard threw all seven innings, allowing five hits and one walk while fanning six in the victory.
Brian Baker (Keene, N.H.) doubled in three at-bats for Norwich and Devin Cilley (Tunbrisge, Vt.) rapped a pair of singles and stole two bases for the Cadets in the loss. Billy Whaley (Northfield, Vt.) suffered the defeat on the hill for the visitors, allowing one run on four hits while striking out seven in the game.
Gagnon singled in the bottom of the first inning for Lasell, advancing to second on a groundout and coming in to score on Uberti's one-out single to give Lasell a 1-0 lead. Baker knocked a one-out double for Norwich in the top of the fourth inning but was stranded on second when Howard fanned a hitter and induced an inning-ending fly-out to escape the danger.
A single and a walk put a pair of runners on base with one-out for Norwich in the top of the seventh inning, by Howard got the next two hitters to pop-out and fly-out to end the inning and close out the 1-0 victory.
Game Two – Lasell 9 – Norwich 4
Kevin Post (Cromwell, Conn.) threw six innings for Lasell, allowing three runs on six hits to improve to 3-0 on the season while also going 2-for-3 at the plate with a homerun with three runs batted in. Rob Madden (Hingham, Mass.) doubled and scored for the Lasers, Wes Hurty (Windsor, Conn.) had two singles, two runs scored and a pair of RBI's and Chris Pittman (Brockton, Mass.)chipped in two singles and two runs scored.
LaShawn Thomas (San Antonio, Texas) singled and doubled for Norwich with a run and an RBI, Sean Gerich (Chicago, Ill.) singled twice while Charles Schaub (East Hampton, Conn.) went 1-for2 with an RBI and run scored. Brandon Place (Concord, N.H.) took the loss for the Cadets, allowing seven runs, four earned on seven hits with five strikeouts in four innings of work. Brian Albert (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) and Kevin Gadowski (Chandler, Ariz.) each allowed a run in one inning on the mound.
Norwich opened the scoring in the top of the second, scoring three runs courtesy of an RBI single by Schaub and a run-scoring double by Thomas, taking a 3-0 lead. Lasell answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, on an RBI single by Post to cut the lead to 3-1.
Lasell put up a three-spot in the in the bottom of the fourth, starting the inning with consecutive singles by Hurty and Pittman. A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out, but Place notched a strikeout to give himself a chance to escape the danger, but an error on a Madden grounder allowed two runs to score, and Madden came in to score on an RBI single by Brandon Valentin (Meriden, Conn.) to put Lasell in front 4-3. The Lasers tacked on four more in the bottom of the fifth, getting two runs on a single by Hurty and two more on Post's two-run blast over the left field fence to put Lasell on top 8-3.
Lasell added one more in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it a 9-3 margin. Norwich tried to stage a two-out rally, getting three straight singles from Thomas, Gerich and Brian Baker that plated a run for the Cadets but the visitors were unable to get closer, falling 9-4.