Knights split on final day in Sunshine State

Auburndale, FL (March 18, 2022) – The Northern Essex Community College baseball dropped the opening game of Friday's split double header before rallying past Oakton to pick up their fourth win of the southern swing against a nationally ranked opponent. NECC will head back north with a 9-2 overall record.

Game 1: #10 NECC 4  Hudson Valley CC 6
Game 2 #10 NECC 6  #4 Oakton 2

Game 1:

• The Knights struggled at the plate throughout the game and were held to just four hits. After trailing 1-0 in the top of the first NECC would tie the game in the first before falling behind again the second. The game would be tied again at four in the sixth before HVCC took the lead for good with a home run in the seventh.
• Tristan Ciampa (Wilmington) and Dallas Vaughan (Haverhill) split the pitching duties for the Knights. Ciampa went four innings, allowing four runs on five hits while striking out seven. Vaughan went the final three innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out three.
• Jared Coppola (Lynn) reached on a two out error that allowed Richie Williams (Georgetown) to score as he led the first inning off with a walk.
• NECC would be held scoreless again until the fifth when Williams and Chris Bear (Boston) reached to start the inning off. Williams scored on a field choice off the bat of Nick White (Townsend) while Bear would score on a two out passed ball.
• Nick Panzini (Methuen) led off the sixth with a base hit and would score two batters later via a passed ball to tie the game at four, before Hudson Valley hit a two out two run home run in the seventh to secure the victory.

Game 2:

• The pitching efforts of Alex Sweeney (Raymond, NH) and Tyler McDonald (Haverhill) needed just 92 combined pitches to shutdown Oakton. Sweeney started at tossed six innings of four hit baseball while striking out five and allowing one earned run. McDonald threw a perfect seventh inning. Neither pitcher allowed a walk.
• Trailing 2-0 after two innings, the Knights would take the lead with three runs in the fourth and add another pair in the fifth before taking on an additional insurance run in the seventh.
• Kevin Rodriguez (Manchester, NH) connected for his first home run of the season in the top of the fourth after Williams led the inning off with a base hit. Joey Settle (Melbourne, FL) would drive in the final run of the frame with a shallow flyball to center that dropped and allowed White to score from second as he had reached on a double two batters earlier.
• Kyle Hsu (Brookline, NH) and Lucas Berube (Dighton) recorded back-to-back base hits to open up the fifth and would base come around to score with one out in the inning. Williams and White would both knock balls into the outfield to record fifth inning RBI's.
• White closed out the scoring in the seventh as he scorched a one out single back up the middle. He would steal second and advance to third on a throwing error, before coming around to score on a groundout from Coppola.

NECC returns north and will hit the road on Monday when they take on Fisher College at 5:00pm at Fraser Field in Lynn. The Knights will be looking to give head coach Jeff Mejia his 200^th win as head coach with a victory.