CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A two-run triple by senior Ricardo Perez (Vienna, Va.) highlighted a five-run fifth inning for MIT that propelled the Engineers to a 7-3 non-conference baseball victory over Curry College. MIT trailed 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, but took advantage of Perez’s triple and an error on the Colonels to take the lead for good in the contest.
MIT (15-5) scored first in the third without the benefit of a hit. A hit batter, a walk and a wild pitch put runners on second and third for Perez, who lofted a sac fly to center to plate the first run of the game. Curry (5-11-2) answered in its next at-bat when senior Sam Barron (Hadley, Mass.) led off the fourth with a double and later came around to score on a two-out base hit off the bat of freshman Ryan Mulry (Hopedale, Mass.).
Curry then took the lead with a pair of unearned runs in the fifth. Freshman Eric Tu (San Roman, Calif.) came out of the bullpen to start the inning for the Engineers and retired the first two hitters before walking sophomore Tanner Givens (Hamden, Conn.). Barron followed with a single to right, with the ball getting past the right fielder for an error that allowed Givens to score and Barron reach third. Senior Matt Rodriguez (Quincy, Mass.) then singled to left to put the Colonels up 3-1.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth things came unraveled for Curry. A hit batter and an error put two on for MIT and set up the game-tying triple by Perez. Sophomore Phil Reiser (Alpharetta, Ga.) then singled in Perez to put MIT up 4-3. Sophomore Chris Kingsley (Middleboro, Mass.), the Curry starter, retired the next hitter, but freshman Kendall Helbert’s (St. Louis, Mo.) fly to shallow left was dropped allowing another run to score and Helbert to reach second. That brought sophomore Travis Levesque (Middleboro, Mass.) out of the bullpen and senior Andrew Jeanguenat (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) greeted him with an RBI single to left to make it 6-3.
MIT completed the scoring in the eighth on a sac fly by sophomore Hayden Cornwell (Newport Beach, Calif.). Perez finished with three RBI for MIT, with sophomore Parker Tew (Chapel Hill, N.C.) picking up three hits for the Engineers. Barron and junior Matt O’Neill (Milton, Mass.) each had a pair of hits for Curry.
Tu pitched just one inning and allowed the two runs on two hits, but picked up his first collegiate victory thanks to the five-run fifth. Freshman Alan Wang (Paoli, Pa.) started for the Engineers and went four innings, scattering six hits and giving up one run while striking out a pair. Kingsley took the loss for Curry, giving up five hits and six runs, only three of which were earned, in 4.2 innings.
MIT will open a three-game NEMWAC conference series against Coast Guard in its next game; taking on the Bears in New London, Connecticut on Friday at 3:30 p.m. Curry will host Eastern Nazarene in a CCC doubleheader on Friday, with the first game starting at 2:00 p.m. (Recap courtesy of MIT Sports Information)
