SUNY Poly Edges Wells Baseball In Pair

SUNY Poly Edges Wells Baseball In Pair

The Wells College baseball team returned home from a six-game road trip and dropped a pair of close games against SUNY Poly in North Eastern Athletic Conference action on Wednesday, April 18 at the Wells Turf Field. Poly took the first game 4-2 and came away with a 4-3 victory in the second game of the day.

Wells is 10-13 overall and 0-8 in NEAC games. SUNY Poly is 8-10 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Wells will be back in action Saturday, April 21 with conference games at Cazenovia College beginning at 1 p.m.

SUNY Poly 4, Wells 2

The Express scored twice in the bottom of the second to take a 2-1 lead in a rally that featured two triples and three walks. Tanner Dunkel led off the inning with a triple and Tyler Young walked. A line-out double play erased Young, but Dunkel later scored on a wild pitch. Justin Forster tripled, and A.J. Nesci walked. Both runners advanced on a double-steal and Forster scored the go-ahead run.

SUNY Poly regained the lead on a two-run homer in the fifth and added an insurance run in the seventh.

Forster had two hits to lead the Express. Brandon Shirley pitched six innings with nine strikeouts and three walks.

SUNY Poly 4, Wells 3

The game featured four lead changes despite seven runs being scored in the contest. Wells took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a sac fly by Kevin Spaeth that scored Tanner Dunkel. SUNY Poly answered with two unearned runs in the top of the fifth.

Wells reclaimed the lead on a two-run single to center by Spaeth in the bottom of the sixth that brought in Andrew Babcock and Derek Shea.

SUNY Poly took the lead for good in the top of the eighth with a single and back-to-back triples to bring home two runs for a 4-3 lead.

Wells got a one-out single and hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the ninth, but the potential tying run was cut down at the plate on an infield grounder.

Shea was the starting pitcher and worked effectively into the eighth inning. He allowed four runs, two earned, in seven-plus innings with four strikeouts and two walks. Zack Kemp pitched the final two innings with three strikeouts and no walks and no hits allowed.

Dylan Nolan and Kevin Spaeth had two hits each.