Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

The Coast Guard Academy won one game in a doubleheader against Worcester Polytechnic Institute and posted strong individual performances in an outdoor track invitational. The Bears also blanked Springfield College in a men's tennis match. The following information was provided by the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Department:

Baseball: WPI 4, Coast Guard 2; Coast Guard 9, WPI 6

Sophomore Tyler Vieira picked up his Coast Guard Academy career record eighth save to nail down the Bears 9-6 win in game two of a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader vs. WPI after the Engineers won the opener 4-2.

The split allowed the Bears, 17-11 overall, to win the three-game weekend set and move into a fourth place tie with WPI at 7-7 in conference play. By winning the series, the Bears now hold the important tiebreaker for the fourth and final seed in the NEWMAC tournament.

Vieira broke the record of seven career saves set by Matt Smith (2000-03) and registered his sixth of the season.

Coast Guard starter sophomore Derek Petty allowed four runs in the first inning, but settled down and pitched seven innings allowing just two runs and five hits over the final six innings to even his record at 3-3 on the season.

The Bears took the lead with a four-run third as junior Eddie Kalankiewicz had an RBI single, sophomore Nolan Gallagher delivered a two-run single to tie the game and Coast Guard took the lead 5-4 on a balk. Junior Mike Salerno's RBI double in the second had gotten the Bears on the board.

With the score tied 5-5, the Bears scored three times in the sixth on an RBI single by freshman Dave Wolinski and sac fly by sophomore Joe Petry and an unearned run on a dropped fly ball for an 8-5 lead.

Gallagher had three hits and three RBI's in the game two win.

WPI’s Nolan Murphy tossed 6 1/3 strong innings in the opener to lead WPI to the win.

WPI scored all four of its runs in the opener on just one hit in the bottom of the fourth inning. After walks to Daniel Thomas and Mitch McClune, Shane Sampson's sacrifice bunt was mishandled to load the bases. Senior Bryan Watkins plated Thomas with a single and McClune came around to score on a throwing error. Two batters later Alex Posch executed a squeeze play to perfection to score Sampson. Matt Blakeman closed out the WPI rally with a RBI groundout.

Murphy was outstanding in his first start after an injury nearly two weeks ago. The graduate student took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He improved to 2-1 on the season and picked up his 10th career victory by yielding just three hits and three walk. While Murphy put two runners on in the seventh with just one out, junior Sean Minor came on and got a strikeout and then allowed a two-run double to left to Gallagher who was thrown out at third base to end the game. It marked just the third career relief appearance for the right hander, and his first save since the opening game of the 2009 NCAA Tournament versus Suffolk.

Coast Guard’s Jesse Karr absorbed the lose despite pitching well for the Bears. The senior went the distance, allowing just two earned runs and struck out five while seeing his record even out at 3-3.

Men's Outdoor Track

Carl Luxhoj and Adam Scalesse were double winners as the Bears won nine events at the Elmer Swanson Invitational at Wesleyan.

Luxhoj won both the long jump (21-10.75) and the triple jump (45-8.5) while Scalesse captured both the 110 hurdles (15.11) and the 400 hurdles (54.73) for the Bears.

Also for Coast Guard, Trevor Siperek won the 3,000 meters (8:48.89), Kevin O'Brien captured the 5,000 meters (15:41.73), Devin Adams won the hammer throw (136-5), John Jaskot won the high jump (6-3.25) and Ben Wolhaupter won the pole vault (12-5.25).

A trio of Bears had second place finishes. Tieran Bonner was second in the 100 meters (11.62), Bryan Ayotte was second in the shot put (42-2.75) and Will Baker was second in the discus (132-6).

Bonner also placed third in the 200 meters with a time of 22.98. There were no team scores kept in the meet.

Women's Outdoor Track

Kim Kopcak won the discus while Alexa Hunko captured the javelin for Coast Guard at the Elmer Swanson Invitational at Wesleyan University.

Kopcak won the discus with a throw of 102 feet while Hunko won the javelin with a toss of 92 feet, four inches.

The Bears took the top three spots in the discus as Emily Trudeau was second (100-3) and Amanda Cost placed third (99-9).

Trudeau also placed second in the shot put (36-1.25) and third in the hammer (117-0).

Alaina Kiskaddon finished second in the 400 hurdles (1:09.17) while Abigail Bishop placed third in the long jump (15-0) and Gina Caylor took third in the pole vault (9-0.25).

The meet did not have keep team scores.

Men's Tennis

Coast Guard did not drop a set in beating Springfield 9-0 in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) match.

Greg Mitchell won at #1 singles (7-5, 6-2), Nick Martin won at #2 singles (6-2, 6-0), Austin Dean won at #3 singles (6-2, 6-1), Chris Hoffman was victorious at #4 singles (6-4, 7-5), Josh Fischer won 6-3, 7-5 at #5 singles while Blake Maurer won the first set 6-0 and 1-0 before his opponent retired in the second set.

Mitchell and Martin won at #1 doubles 8-5, Dean and Hoffman prevailed at #2 doubles 8-3 while Fischer and Maurer won 8-4 at #3 doubles.

The Bears improve to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in conference play.