Wheaton Lyons are NEWMAC champs

The Wheaton Lyons are returning to the NCAA playoffs for the tenth tine since 2000. Wheaton (Mass.) sports information

NORTON, MA- For the 11th time in the NEWMAC's 13-year history, the Wheaton (Mass.) the league tournament championship, as the top-seeded Lyons edged third seed MIT by a score of 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at Sidell Stadium.

Defeating the Engineers for the second time in the tourney after winning 4-3 in the second round, Wheaton, which is ranked 16th nationally and second in New England, will return to the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time since 2000.  Now 27-8, the Lyons will represent the NEWMAC at Whitehouse Field in Harwich beginning on Wednesday, May 18.  MIT, which eliminated second seed Babson College earlier today, fell to 21-12.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Wheaton senior Hadi Raad was named NEWMAC Most Outstanding Player, as the right fielder batted .636 and slugged 1.182 in three games, going 7-for-11 with four runs, three RBI and four doubles.  Raad was 2-for-4 with a run and a double today.  Seven other Lyons recorded one hit each, with senior Tad Skelley, juniors Dan Haugh and Hal Landers, and sophomore Eric Jensen each driving in a run.  Landers also drew two walks.

Junior David Longley picked up the win in relief of junior starter Nolan Corr , who threw six shutout innings with two strikeouts and a pair of walks.  Longley allowed two runs on two hits, senior Kevin Calabro pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, while freshman Ryan Grant earned his eighth save of the season, giving up his first run of the spring.  Grant entered today with 16 straight shutout frames.

Senior Dan Hyatt went 3-for-5 with two runs to lead MIT, while junior A.J. Hansborough was 3-for-5 with an RBI.  Junior starter Chris Vaughn gave up two earned runs on five hits with one walk in 5.1 innings, and sophomore Max Ockner was saddled with the loss in relief.  He yielded two earned runs on three hits with one strikeout and a walk in 1.1 innings.

Wheaton (Mass.) has captured the NEWMAC trophy 11 times in the 13 year history. Wheaton (Mass.) sports information

Both teams squandered scoring opportunities in the early going, combining to strand nine runners through the first two frames, as each left the bases jammed in the second.  After a 1-2-3 fourth, Corr ran into trouble in the fifth, as MIT loaded the bags with two outs, but he then forced a fly ball into center to end the threat.

Meanwhile, Vaughan retired eight batters in a row before giving up a leadoff double to Raad in the bottom of the fifth.  Raad moved to third on a Landers sacrifice before scoring on Jensen's successful suicide squeeze two batters later, as Jensen placed his bunt to the right of the mound.  The Engineers answered in the sixth, putting two runners on with one down, but Corr induced his second 5-4-3 inning-ending double play to keep MIT at bay.

Wheaton pushed its second run across in the bottom half of the sixth, using a single, a hit batsman and a walk to jam the bags before Landers' RBI single made the score 2-0.  MIT knotted the game with two runs in the seventh, scoring on a passed ball and groundout after loading the bases with one out.  The Lyons got those two runs back in the home half, with Jensen's leadoff double and Haugh's 51st RBI of the season combining for the first run.  Four batters later, Skelley singled home Haugh for a 4-2 Wheaton edge.

In the ninth, Grant got his first two batters to ground out before surrendering up back-to-back hits, including a run-scoring double by Hansborough.  With the tying run at second, Grant got his final batter to ground out to first, as freshman first baseman Mike Bisceglia beat out the MIT runner to the bag to record the game's final out.