Bantams blank Seahawks in Hartford

HARTFORD, Conn. – Five Bantam pitchers combined to shutout Salve Regina University in a 5-0 victory for the Trinity College baseball team on Tuesday evening at Murren Family Field at DiBenedetto Stadium in Hartford. Trinity improves to 4-7 on the year while the Seahawks fall to 4-7. The Bantams pick the ball back up on Friday at 3 p.m. for the first of a three-game, New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) East series against the Tufts University Jumbos in Medford.

Trinity sophomore starting pitcher Alex Shafer (Baltimore, Md.) cruised through the first four innings of the game, limiting the Seahawks to just a pair of hits while striking out three. Shafer picked up his first win of the season before giving way to rookie Justin Olson (Avon, Conn.), junior Brad Whitman (Salisbury, Mass.) and sophomore Andrew DeRoche (North Reading, Mass.), who all turned in at least an inning of work and kept Salve Regina off the board, getting the ball to senior lefty McLane Hill (Marlborough, Conn.) who pitched the final 1.1 innings to earn his third save of the season and seal the win.

The Bantams put pressure on Salve in the bottom of the second after a walk by sophomore DH Mack Lauder (Chappaqua, N.Y.) was followed by a single to centerfield by senior LF Matt Toth (New Canaan, Conn.) to put two on with no outs. Salve starter Patrick Maybach (Saunderstown, R.I.) induced a double play to get a quick two outs but Trinity came back and scratched across a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead. Junior 2B Ben Reinisch (Troy, N.Y.) broke the scoreless tie with a sharply hit line drive base hit to right-centerfield to score Lauder before coming around to score on an RBI-single by classmate and 1B Johnny Stamatis (Ridgefield, Conn.).

The Bantams added a run in the bottom of the sixth, on an RBI-single from Lauder, and again in the seventh when Toth beat out an infield hit with two outs that allowed senior captain Christian Orsini (Livingston, N.J.) to score from second.

Lauder later crushed a triple to the deepest part of the park in the eighth inning which put the Bantams ahead, 4-0. Lauder then came across on an RBI-groundout by senior 3B Tyler Forgione (North Branford, Conn.) to give the hosts a solid, 5-0 lead, which would hold, as Hill allowed zero hits and struck out two in the final half inning to close things out.