Lancers Pound Their Way to Win Over Cougars in Lyons Diamond Opener

WORCESTER, Mass. – In their first game on campus at Lyons Diamond this season, the Worcester State baseball team jumped on Clark early and slugged their way to an 11-1 win on Saturday afternoon. 

Mike Chaves Jr. (Hudson, Mass.) drove in four runs, including a three-run homer during a four-run second inning that gave the home team a 7-0 lead. 

It was Chaves's fourth homer of the year, and all of them are of the three-run variety.  

The Lancers (5-7) pounded out 14 hits and took a 7-0 lead after the first two frames to help support starting pitcher Cole Glassburn (Hopkinton, Mass.), who went six innings of shutout baseball. Glassburn allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out eight and improving to 2-1 on the mound. 

Anthony Iamarone (Providence, R.I.) doubled in Tom Halliwell (Leominster, Mass.) as the Lancers started the game with back to back hits. Iamarone came around to score the first of his four runs on the day on an RBI groundout by Chaves before Andrew LeBlanc (Leominster, Mass.) singled home Sean Dutton (Leominster, Mass.), who doubled with two outs. 

Alex Sorenti-Burns (Sagamore Beach, Mass.) had a pair of runs batted in, including a sacrifice fly in the second and a double down the left field line in the fifth. Sorenti-Burns's fly ball with the bases loaded preceded the three-run blast to left field by Chaves, which plated Iamarone and Halliwell for the second time today. 

Halliwell was 2-5 with a pair of runs scored and an RBI single to score Chris Wright (Jefferson, Mass.), who went 3-3 at the plate with a pair of runs scored. 

The Cougars got on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth when Samuel Farrell (Holliston, Mass.) was hit by a pitch and scored an unearned run on two passed balls and a fielding error. 

Glassburn and the Lancers limited the Cougars to just the four hits, with Justin Pena (Mansfield, Mass.) throwing two innings of scoreless relief and Noah Stuart (Hudson, Mass.) closing out the ninth. 

Starter Andrews Hulfachor (Nashua, N.H.) suffered the loss (1-2) after lasting just two innings and giving up seven earned runs on six hits and three walks. 

Zachary Gitschier (Lowell, Mass.) was the most effective out of the Clark bullpen. In two innings of perfect relief, he struck out four batters. 

Worcester is back on the road next week with a game at Curry on Monday (3:00 PM) and a game at Eastern Nazarene on Wednesday evening (7 PM). 

Clark (8-3), after having their four-game win streak snapped, will turn around and play Anna Maria at home tomorrow, with first pitch at 12:00 PM.