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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
WARRIORS SNAP OUT OF THREE-GAME FUNK WITH 21-5 ROUT
Bolorin sets the tone with leadoff home run as Warriors blast Whittier College
WHITTIER, Calif. -- Senior Ismael Bolorin (Manchester) set the tone with a game-opening home run and the Warriors collected nine extra-base hits in a 21-5 rout of Whittier College Tuesday afternoon at Memorial Field on the WC campus.
Eastern (4-4) snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating Whittier for the seventh straight season. The loss ended a four-game winning streak for Whittier (9-9-1), which had won eight of its previous ten and had beaten two teams (Rutgers-Newark and Ithaca College) which had soundly defeated Eastern earlier in the week. Three of the Poets' losses this season – their first three games of the year -- have come at the hands of Chapman University, the No. 1 ranked team in Division III.
Nine players contributed a hit, ten scored a run, and seven drove in at least one for the Warriors, who had seven doubles and two home runs, batted around in scoring five runs in the fourth inning, and reached five pitchers for 18 hits. Making his first start of the season, Whittier senior righty Mark Canner faced only 12 batters before being lifted with two out in the second inning and on the short end of a 5-0 score. Canner was charged with six earned runs on four hits, walked three and hit a batter.
Following Bolorin’s leadoff home run, Canner retired the next two batters on fly balls before the Warriors staged a two-out uprising that netted three additional runs. Senior third baseman Trey Bongiovanni (Meriden) drove in the second run with a single after Canner loaded the bases with a walk, hit batter and single, and first-year sophomore catcher Chris Wojick (Uncasville) plated two more with a double.
Wojick and freshman utility player Pat Smith (Milford, PA) combined for six hits, nine RBI and three runs scored, while junior All-America Shawn Gilblair (Windham) drove in six runs and scored three with four hits. Among Gilblair’s hits was a three-run home run that capped the scoring in the eighth. Wojick and Smith each had two doubles. Wojick was 2-for-4 with five RBI and two runs scored and Smith was 4-for-6 with four RBI and a run scored. Senior second baseman Zack Thomas (East Haddam) and sophomore utility player John Parke (Middlefield) both scored four runs and had two hits.
Now 2-3 in California, Eastern scored in every inning but the ninth, finishing with 21 hits. Leading 7-0, the Warriors scored five runs in the fourth to put the game away.
Junior righty James Kukucka (Vernon) won his second decision this year in as many career starts, combining on a seven-hitter with junior righty Michael Montanari (Newington). Montanari wrapped up the win with a three-inning save.
Thursday, the Warriors face Franklin & Marshall College at 1 p.m. ET and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at 5:30 p.m. ET, both games being played at CMS in Claremont, Calif.
Eastern Conn. 21, Whittier College 5
Eastern Conn. (4-4) 421 513 230 -- 21 18 2
Whittier (9-9-1) 020 012 000 -- 5 7 1
James Kukucka (2-1), Michael Montanari (7) and Chris Wojick, Rob Chmiel (7). Mark Canner (0-1), Philip Limon (2), Robert Norton (4), Zach Boroson (6), Anthony Tsui (8) and Ryan Crawford. Save-Montanari. 2B-Chris Wojick 2, Pat Smith 2, Melvin Castillo, Shawn Gilblair, Zack Thomas (E), John Fugazi, Ken Baptiste (W); HR-Ismael Bolorin, Gilblair (E), Crawford (W).
