NORTON, Mass. (courtesy Wheaton College sports
information)- In their next-to-last game of the season, the
Brandeis baseball team fell to alumnus Eric Podbelski '91 and the
Wheaton College Lyons, 7-1. Wheaton, ranked second in New England
and 18th in the nation in Division III, improved to 29-7, while the
Judges fell to 11-23.
Sophomore Sean O'Hare (Southampton, MA/Hampshire
Regional) recorded half of Brandeis' six hits, driving in
the Judges' lone run, while freshman Chris Ferro (Walpole,
MA/Walpole) drew a pair of walks. Classmate Mike
Swerdloff (Scarsdale, NY/Ardsley) yielded three earned runs on 10
hits with four strikeouts and no walks during 6.2 frames.
A quartet of freshmen led the Lyons, as Sean Ryan
(Norton, MA/Norton) went 3-for-4 with three runs and a
double, while Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH/Gorham) had
two hits, a pair of RBI, two stolen bases and a two-bagger.
Southpaw Justin Santiago (Bronx, NY/Riverdale/Kingsbridge
Academy) improved to 5-0 after giving up the one run on
five hits with three strikeouts and three walks in six innings, and
Frank Holbrook (Middletown, RI/Portsmouth Abbey
School) tossed three scoreless frames to earn his first
save, surrendering just one hit while fanning a batter.
Wheaton plated the game's first two runs in the second, using
just one hit and two visitor errors. Ryan beat out the third
baseman's throw for an infield hit to lead off before scoring on an
infield RBI grounder by senior Jeff Lieneck (Foxboro,
MA/Xaverian Brothers). With one down, junior
Eric Laliberte (Nashua, NH/Bishop Guertin) drove
in the Lyons' second run.
The hosts tacked on three runs in the third, taking advantage of
five straight hits, including RBI doubles from Jensen and
Ryan. Junior Sean Munley (Trenton, NJ/The Hun School
of Princeton) capped that stretch by singling up the
middle to give the Blue and White a 5-0 advantage. Meanwhile,
Santiago yielded just one knock through the first four frames, to
the second batter of the game.
Jensen's RBI fielder's choice in the home half of the fourth
provided the Lyons with their sixth run. After Brandeis cut
its deficit back to five on O'Hare's two-out single in the fifth,
Wheaton completed the scoring in the bottom half, pushing its
seventh run across on a fielding error. Holbrook posted 1-2-3
innings in the seventh and ninth while surrendering a harmless
single in the eighth, as he retired his final six batters in
order.
The Judges conclude their season tomorrow at UMass-Dartmouth at
1 p.m.
BRANDEIS-WHEATON BOX SCORE
