CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Just one day after winning the CCC Championship for the second straight season and the sixth time in program history, the Gulls (30-13) lost to NEWMAC champions MIT (24-13) by a score of 4-3 despite both senior Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) and freshman Cam Farnham (Andover, Mass.) extending their hitting streaks to 15 games on the road.
Gold tied his career-high, set from April 6th to May 5th in 2013 when he recorded a hit in 15 straight games, with a 2-for-4 day at the plate with two doubles, a run, and a RBI. Farnham also went 2-for-4, doubled in the top of the third, and scored a run in a two-run top of the eighth for the Gulls.
Trailing 4-1 in the top of the eighth, Farnham reached on an error by the MIT second baseman and on the very play advanced to third on a single to left by junior Harry Oringer (Dartmouth, Mass.) and then scored on an error by the left fielder. Two batters later, Gold doubled to score Oringer to make it a one-run game. Gold would reach third base with two outs, but MIT senior reliever Rob Bertucci (Belleville, Ill.) got the final out to leave the game-tying run stranded on third.
In the top of the ninth, Endicott went down quietly 1-2-3 with Bertucci getting the final three outs for his fourth save of the season.
Gulls sophomore third baseman Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) went 1-for-4 with a RBI single in the top of the seventh for Endicott's first run of the game. Endicott had trailed 4-0 at that point after MIT scored three of their four runs via the long ball. Engineers junior Phil Reiser (Alpharetta, Ga.) hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth and senior Patrick Dayton (Archer City, Texas) hit a two-run homerun in the fifth.
Endicott freshman Eric Nagle (Manchester, Conn.) suffered the loss (2-1) by allowing two runs, one earned, on six hits and two walks while striking out three in 3 1/3 innings. Sophomore lefty Corbin Hyde (Lewiston, Maine) pitched well in relief in the final two innings as he only allowed one base runner to reach on a walk while striking out two Engineers.
Endicott will take on another conference champion in Saint Joseph's (Maine) from the GNAC on Thursday, May 8th in Standish, Maine. It will be Endicott's final game before the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament brackets are released on Monday, May 11th.