BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott baseball team improved to 8-2 in their non-conference schedule and defeating Brandeis 10-4 on Wednesday afternoon behind 7 1/3 innings on the mound from junior lefty Zach Poland (Essex Junction, Vt.) and two triples from sophomore outfielder Corbin Hyde (Lewiston, Maine) that brought home three runs.
Endicott (11-3, 3-1 CCC) continues their non-conference schedule on Thursday, April 3rd with a 4:00 pm match up against the sixth-ranked team in the region Wheaton (Mass.) at North Field. Endicott and Wheaton met once in the 2013 NCAA Division III New England Regional with the Gulls winning 3-2 in 10 innings to advance into the regional final. The Lyons are currently 13-6-1 (4-2 NEWMAC) on the year.
Brandeis dropped to 7-11 (2- 6 UAA) with the loss and will pick up action on Thursday, April 3rd at Rhode Island College. The Judges were blanked over the first six innings until a sacrifice fly by senior Dominic Schwartz (San Francisco, Calif.) and later got a RBI single by junior Kyle Brenner (Brookfield, Mass.) and a two-RBI single from sophomore Liam O'Connor (Avon, Conn.), who finished 3-for-4 in the game.
Endicott got to Brandeis starter Brian Ing (Sandwich, Mass.) early in the contest, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first on a Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) hit through the right side of the infield that scored freshman outfielder Cam Farnham (Andover, Mass.). The next batter, senior catcher EJ Martinez (Brooklyn, N.Y.), lined out to center to score Harry Oringer (Dartmouth, Mass.) to give the Blue and Green a 2-0 lead.
The bottom half of the second produced two more runs for Endicott after Hyde tripled to right center to plate freshman Mike Kochiss (Fairfield, Conn.) who had doubled to get into scoring position. Hyde would score on the next play on a RBI groundout by Farnham.
Judges sophomore James Machado (Dracut, Mass.) shut down Endicott over the next two frames until the bottom of the fifth as the Gulls put up four more runs with two outs to take a 8-0 lead. Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) plated two on a single through the infield, Michael Cahill (Plymouth, Mass.) drove a ball up the middle to score the third runner of the inning, and Kochiss knocked in his lone RBI on a hard hit ball to third that brought Paola home 90 feet.
Brandeis got one run back in the seventh on Schwartz' sacrifice fly, but Endicott took the run back in the bottom half of the frame on Hyde's second triple to deep center to score sophomore catcher Josh Drew (Intervale, N.H.). Drew had reached on a leadoff, pinch-hit walk.
Brandeis put up their two final runs in the top of the eighth on RBI singles from Brenner and O'Connor and threated to add more in the top of the ninth, but Gulls sophomore Nick Quattro (Canton, Conn.) escaped a jam with two runners on with a strikeout to end the game.
Oringer finished the game 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored and Kochiss recorded two hits in four trips to the plate with a run and a RBI.