Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

Springfield College defeated the Coast Guard Academy softball team on Friday, breaking the team's 15-game winning streak. The baseball team also lost to Babson College in extra innings. Two members of the track team also earned honors. The following information was provided by the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Department:

Softball: Springfield 2, Coast Guard 0

Sophomore Breann Joyce hit a two-run homer and freshman Ashley Marino fired a two-hit shutout as second-seeded Springfield beat top-seed and host Coast Guard, ranked fourth nationally, 2-0 in the winners’ bracket final of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) softball tournament.

Marino allowed just a pair of singles in the first inning, walked one and struck out six to improve to 12-6 on the season.

The Pride, the only team to beat Coast Guard this season, improve to 24-13, snap the Bears 15-game winning streak and earn a berth in the championship game. Coast Guard drops to 32-2 on the season.

Coast Guard will take on fifth-seeded Babson in the losers’ bracket final on Saturday at noon. The winner of that game will need to beat Springfield twice to win the championship.

Joyce blasted a two-out, two-run homer to center in the fourth after the inning was extended due to a fielding error to lead off the inning.

Junior Hayley Feindel (31-2) had her career-long scoreless innings streak snapped at 75 innings and she took the loss. She allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out 13 while allowing the two unearned runs.

Baseball: Babson 2, Coast Guard 1

Senior captain Dave Ahern drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, as the second-seeded Beavers defeated the fourth-seeded United States Coast Guard Academy Bears, 2-1, on day two of the 2011 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament at Babson’s Govoni Field on Friday afternoon.

With the victory, Babson (25-11) remains alive in the double-elimination tourney and will play either #1 Wheaton or #3 MIT tomorrow at Wheaton. Meanwhile, Coast Guard (19-15) has been knocked out of the tournament with its second straight defeat.

Ahern did it all in the win for the Beavers, pitching all 10 innings and giving up just one unearned run on six hits, walking none and striking out a career-high 14 batters. At the plate, he recorded three of his team’s four hits in the lead-off spot, including a double in the first and a walk-off RBI single in the 10th. His performance on the mound improved his record to 5-2 and lowered his ERA to 1.14 on the season, while the 3-for-4 effort raised his batting average to .425 this spring.

Both starting pitchers were fabulous in the contest, as Ahern and Coast Guard sophomore Derek Petty dominated opposing hitters. Ahern gave up a pair of two-out hits in the first before setting down 11 straight, and he later escaped a first-and-third, no-out jam with only one unearned run allowed in the sixth. The Beavers’ senior righthander only seemed to get stronger from there, bouncing back from a lead-off single in the eighth to retire the final nine batters that he faced.

Meanwhile, Petty matched Ahern’s performance for eight innings, allowing just one unearned run on only two hits while walking three and striking out four. He pitched around a lead-off double in the first and then overcame back-to-back two-out walks in the second before setting down four in a row. Babson finally tagged him for an unearned run in the fourth thanks to a pair of errors, but the sophomore righty settled down quickly to retire 11 of the final 13 batters that he faced.

Defensive miscues led to the first run of the game for both teams. In the bottom of the fourth, Babson sophomore Chris Kucher reached on an error and advanced to second when senior Corey Highfield was able to reach after his sacrifice bunt attempt was mishandled. Another sac bunt by first-year Chris Warren put runners at second and third with one out, and sophomore Trevor Boyce sliced the first pitch he saw deep into the left field corner for a sacrifice fly that scored Kucher easily from third with the first run of the contest.

Coast Guard answered with a run in the top of the sixth, beginning when Sophomore Eric Gerken led off with a hard-hit double to right center and moved to third on a bunt single by junior Eddie Kalankiewicz. Third baseman Kucher then cut the lead runner down at the plate on a grounder off the bat of sophomore Tyler Babkiewich, but Gerken stayed in the run-down long enough to allow both trailing runners to move into scoring position. Ahern would register his 10th strikeout of the game for the inning’s second out, but a fielding error on sophomore Nolan Gallagher’s grounder up the middle allowed Kalankiewicz to scamper home with the tying run.

That would be all either team would muster until extra innings, as Ahern cruised all the way through the 10th and Petty joined sophomore Tyler Vieira to keep the Babson bats quiet through nine.

Babson finally clinched the victory in the bottom of the tenth, starting when sophomore Pat Matvichuk reached on an infield single deep in the hole at short with one out. Vieira would fan the next batter for the second out, bringing Ahern to the plate for the fifth time. Matvichuk then stole second on a first-pitch strike, and Ahern drilled the second offering he saw into the right field corner. Coast Guard rightfielder Gallagher made a valiant diving effort to snare the liner and nearly came up with a spectacular game-saving catch, but the ball scooted out of his glove as he hit the ground, allowing Matvichuk to coast home with the winning run.

Vieira (2-2) suffered the loss in relief, allowing one run on two hits in 1 2/3 innings of work.

Track and Field

Freshman Clay Kosack placed tenth overall in the Holy Cross Decathlon scoring 5,088 points. The Multi-Event competition sponsored Division I, II, and III competition.

Kosack’s overall score was good enough to qualify for the Division III New England Championships held at MIT on May 5th & 6th.

His collegiate personal record of 53.94 in the 400 meter dash, 18.52 in the 110 meter high hurdles, and 134’3” javelin throw help pushed him beyond the qualifying standard.

Freshman Abby Bishop broke the Coast Guard Academy school record and finished sixth overall at the Holy Cross Heptathlon among 24 competitors from Division I, II, and III institutions.

Bishops overall score of 3582 set the Academy's heptathlon record established by Heidi Heydorn in 2001.

Bishop also holds the Coast Guard record for indoor pentathlon.

She had the top 200 meter dash time of 27.14, the fourth best long jump mark, and the ninth best 800 meter run time.

Her heptathlon score is good enough to qualify for the Division III New England Championships at MIT.