Mountaineers' Late Comeback Falls Short
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Southern Vermont baseball team fell behind early to Eastern Nazarene College, but they made a compelling comeback late in the game that left them within sight of the win in the 16-10 loss. Freshman Ian Valentine (Newfield, N.Y.) was 2 for 3 off the bench scoring two runs for the Mountaineers.
The Crusaders from Quincy, Massachusetts started the game with two runs off two hits in the top of the first inning, leaving SVC to play catch-up for the rest of the game. Eastern Nazarene put up two more before a big sixth inning that saw them score seven runs. In the bottom half of the inning, however, the Mountaineers started their comeback.
Coach Schaffer's young squad kept with their competitive ways, scoring four runs in the sixth and another three in each of the next two innings. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Mountaineer freshmen held their own with RBIs coming from Pat Warrington (Folcroft, Pa.) and Henry N. Blethen (Enfield, Conn.) who knocked in two with a pinch-hit single. Warrington kept swinging the bat well in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two RBI single shortly after an RBI single from freshman Eric Wells (Athens, Pa.).
The Mountaineers were behind 15-10 going into the last inning but were unable to get anything going, losing by a final of 16-10. Wells finished with a 3 for 4 performance with an RBI and two runs scored. The Mountaineer defense was vastly superior to that of the Crusaders, allowing no errors to Eastern Nazarene's six.
