UConn Avery Point baseball team sweeps tourney, advances
Groton — The UConn Avery Point baseball team put a quick end to its best of three Sub-District tournament championship series on Saturday.
The Pointers made it two straight over Monroe Community College with a 6-3 win at Washington Park.
They held off a late threat to close out the game.
“We got it done somehow,“said Avery Point coach Connor Lewis, who's in his first season. ”We held on. It got interesting at some points.“
Winners of nine of its last 10 games, Avery Point (18-13) moves on to the National Junior College Athletic Association East District tournament next weekend in New York. Details about the four-team, double elimination have yet to be announced.
Freshman righthander Dan Lang (4-4) earned the win despite dancing in and out of trouble. He allowed six hits and struck out 11 while allowing three runs — two earned — in eight innings.
In the eighth, Lang walked the bases loaded before escaping the jam.
“He was on his last batter,” Lewis said. “I stuck with him. We had a little bit of a cushion. I liked his stuff against the guy at the plate. He was able to strike him out on three pitches and leave the bases loaded.”
Derrel Mitchell, a New London graduate, closed on the game in the ninth inning to earn his first save of the season.
Freshman Jayden Sgro had two hits — a two-run double in the fourth and RBI single in the eighth. Will Estronza added an RBI single.
On Friday, Avery Point won the series opener, 7-4.
In other games:
• Coast Guard Academy's season ended with a 4-3 loss to Salve Regina in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament losers' bracket game in Newport, R.I.
Pinch-hitter Tyle Petrosino's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning accounted for the game-winning run for the top-seeded Seahawks (337).
CGA's Parker Madden drilled a two-run home run in the sixth inning tied the score at 3-all. Kael Godshalk finished with three hits and Madden went 2 for 4 overall while Carson Cho added two hits.
Hunter Yaworski, a Killingly High School graduate and former Mitchell College player, went 2 for 4 with an RBI for Salve Regina.
The Bears, the No. 2 seed, opened conference tournament play with a 12-10 loss to No. 3 Babson on Thursday.
They finished 24-11 overall, tying the program record for most wins in a season.
Men’s track
• Coast Guard Academy's Josh Banks earned all-division honors by placing second in the pole vault with a height of 16-3.5 at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAA) Track an Field Championships in Worcester.
Ian Naff took 11th in the 400 (49.10) and ran 22.22 in the 200 for the Bears, who placed 24th overall with eight points.
• Connecticut College's Brendan Mellitt finished second in the 10,000 with a time of 30:33.28 at the NEICAAA Championships. Jonathan Norton was seventh in the 3,000 steeplechase (9:24.35) and Ellis Iurilli-Hough took 10th (9:39.71).
Women’s track
• Claire Semerod was Coast Guard's top finisher at the NEICAAA Championships, placing third in the 5,000 in a personal best 17:17.55 and earning all-division status. Allie Wildsmith (fourth, high jump, 5-6.5) was an all-division competitor while Sadie Olson achieved all-division honors in the hammer throw (fourth, a career best 160-3) and discus (eighth, a personal best 135-9).
In the long jump, Kaylee Wright took ninth with a mark of 18-3 for the Bears, who finished 16th with 17 points.
• Conn College's Alexa Estes and Grace McDonough broke their own school records in the 800 and 1,500, respectively at the NEICAAA Championships. Estes placed second in 2:10.88 and McDonough took fourth in 4:30.95.