Wheaton College Bats on Fire in Win Over WPI

The Wheaton College baseball team, ranked no.12 overall in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, clubbed eight extra-base hits to defeat WPI, 16-2, in New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action on Tuesday evening at Sidell Stadium.

Wheaton senior right-hander Frank Holbrook (Middletown, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey School) kept his perfect record intact (6-0) striking out six batters over seven innings while yielding five hits, one run (earned) and one walk. Freshman Jordan Jenkins (Scituate, Mass./Norwell) hurled a scoreless ninth for the Lyons with one strikeout.

Freshman Craig Teed (Stratham, N.H./St. Thomas Aquinas) was dealt the loss on four-and-one-thirds innings, six hits, seven runs (all earned) and seven free passes.

Wheaton scored 16 runs on 17 hits including four doubles, three triples and two homers. The Lyons trailed after the first half inning of play freshman Alex Venditti (Newton, Mass./St. Sebastian’s) launched his team-leading fourth home run of the season to center field.

Senior Eric Jensen (Gorham, N.H./Gorham) answered with a two-run double down the left field line in the bottom half of the frame for the Blue and White and they never looked back. Wheaton went on to score seven unanswered runs to put the game away.

Sophomore Kevin Foley (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug) added an RBI triple to right-center field in the second and a two-run triple in the fifth. Jensen blasted his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to left field, in the sixth and sophomore Mike Bisceglia (New Boston, N.H./Goffstown) cranked a three-run shot in a five-run eighth inning to highlight the scoring.

Four student-athletes in the Lyons lineup had multi-hit games including Foley, Jensen and sophomores Apolinar De la Cruz (Providence, R.I./Classical) and Justin Peluso (North Andover, Mass./Saint John’s Prep). Jensen led all players with four RBI while Foley and Bisceglia had three apiece Peluso knocked in two with a base hit to center in the fifth.

With the win, Wheaton (18-6, 11-1 NEWMAC) has swept the regular season against WPI (9-19, 4-11 NEWMAC) outscoring the Engineers 43-5 during the three-game set. The Lyons host Western New England University, who is among 19 other teams receiving votes in the D3baseball.com national poll, on Thursday, April 11 at 3:30 p.m. WPI takes on Fitchburg State University today at 3:30 p.m. The Engineers will serve as the home team in their game at Fitchburg State.