Baseball Splits Regular Season Finale at Nichols

DUDLEY, Mass. – The Wentworth Institute of Technology baseball team played to a split against the Nichols Bison on Friday afternoon. The Leopards took game one 10-8 before falling 8-7 in game two.

GAME 1: Wentworth 10, Nichols 8

Alec Peruzzi improved to 6-1 this season after throwing 7.0 innings with three strikeouts. Nigel Cross gets his first save of the season after throwing 1.2 innings, striking out one. Christian Roncal went 3-5 with two runs and two RBI while Lukas Poirier went 2-4 with two runs. Mike Sibert added three RBI and one run to go with two hits while Cyle Archer and Matt Robinson each tallied two hits, one RBI, and one run.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Nichols opened the scoring in the first inning after Anthony Hackert's triple down the right field line scored the game's opening run. Adam Pivacek followed with a sacrifice fly to bring another run and gave the Bison a 2-0 lead.
• Wentworth answered in the second inning with Cormier's single through the right side scoring Roncal to make it 2-1. Sibert followed with a double to bring in Poirier and tie the game.
• The Leopards jumped in front in the third inning after Cullinan scored on a wild pitch. Turcotte's RBI single in the fifth scored Robinson to put the Leopards in front by two. Roncal then hit a double to drive in two more runs, stretching Wentworth's lead to 6-2.
• The Bison pulled one back in the bottom of the fifth inning behind Tyler Ladouceur's RBI single, cutting the lead to three runs. Peruzzi struck out one in the sixth to keep the Leopards in front 6-3 through six innings.
• Sibert doubled in the seventh inning to score two runs and give the Leopards an 8-3 lead. Archer followed with an RBI single that scored Sibert and stretched Wentworth's advantage to 9-3. Robinson then hit an RBI single to give the visitors a seven-run lead.
• The Bison tacked on two runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 10-5 game with two frames to play. A three-run home run from Jack Raymond in the bottom of the eighth made it 10-8, but the Leopards managed to hang on and win game one.

Game 2: Nichols 8, Wentworth 7

Cullinan went 4-5 with two runs and one RBI while Turcotte added one hit and two RBI. Roncal went 2-3 with one RBI and Favazzo went 2-4 with three runs and one RBI. Cooper Smith threw 3.0 innings with two strikeouts and Nigel Cross went 1.1 innings with two strikeouts.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Leopards took the lead in the first inning after an RBI double from Favazzo brought in Robinson. Turcotte followed with a single to left that scored two runs, giving Wentworth an early 3-0 lead.
• Cullinan hit an RBI single in the second to make it 4-0 before Roncal's RBI single in the third pushed the lead to five runs. Nichols got one back in the bottom of the third inning behind Raymond's solo home run.
• An RBI single from Hackert and a throwing error by the Leopards in the seventh scored two runs for the Bison, cutting the lead to 5-3 heading into the eighth inning.
• Poirier hit an RBI single in the eighth to score Cullinan and give the Leopards a three-run cushion. Cormier's sacrifice fly made it 7-3 before the Bison answered in the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run from Ladouceur.
• Brady Wendell's groundout scored a fifth run for Nichols, sending the game into the ninth inning with Wentworth in front 7-5.
• The Leopards had the bases loaded in the ninth but could not add to their lead. Hakcert hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth before Ryan Keating's two run home run tied the game 7-7. Nichols won the game after Charles Macelhiney hit an RBI single to split the Friday doubleheader.

THE SERIES

• Today was the 59^th and 60^th all-time meeting between the teams.

NEXT UP

• The Leopards await their opponent in the Conference of New England Tournament.

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