MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - The New England College baseball team wrapped up their spring break slate at The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, dropping a doubleheader to Elmira College on Thursday afternoon.
In game one, the Pilgrims pushed across three runs in the third inning, capped off by a two-run home run by sophomore Jaken Pellerin (Manchester, N.H.), but were held scoreless for the remainder of the game. For Pellerin, the two-run shot to deep center field was his first of the season after he hit a team-high five as a freshman. The Soaring Eagles took the lead in the bottom of the third before plating six in the fifth to take an eventual 13-3 win.
The Elmira bats stayed hot to start game two as the first two batters of the game hit home runs as part of a three-run inning. They scored again in the second to go up four. The Pilgrims managed to get one back in the bottom half of the inning after senior Harold Martinez (Wethersfield, Conn.) walked, senior Jackson Round (Cayuga, Ont.) doubled, and junior Charlie Greenberg (Lewisboro, N.Y.) drove in Martinez.
Down 5-1 in the fourth, Martinez led off with a single before later scoring on Round's second double of the day. The 'Grims would load the bases for senior Ryan Cote (Goffstown, N.H.) who worked a walk to score Round to make it a two-run ballgame.
After the Soaring Eagles tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh, graduate Brady Philibotte (Weare, N.H.) walked and Pellerin singled to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. Two batters later, Martinez blooped a single into center field to score pinch runner Nick Becker (Portland, Maine), but fellow pinch runner Nick Hernandez (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) was thrown out at third to end the game.
Senior Christopher Chagnon (Portsmouth, R.I.) was dealt the loss on the mound for the Pilgrims, going six innings while giving up just one earned run after the three given up in the first inning. Elmira's Nicholas Miller was credited with the win in relief after permitting just one run in three and two third innings.
Round went 3-for-3 with both of the team's extra-base hits in the night cap with both an RBI and a run scored. Martinez hit 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored and is batting .533 through five starts so far this season.
The Pilgrims will head back north and resume play in just under a week on Wednesday, March 11th as they visit Anna Maria for a regional, non-conference matchup at 3:00 PM.
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