Trinity Baseball Outslugs Gordon for 11-5 Win

Tyler Buckley '19 drove in four RBIs on the day for Trinity. Recap, photo courtesy of Trinity College

Hartford, Conn. - Senior Nick Pezzella (Worcester, Mass.) and freshman Tyler Buckley (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) drove in four runs each to pace the offense as the Trinity College baseball team knocked off the Gordon College Fighting Scots, 11-5, on Wednesday afternoon in Hartford. Trinity wins its second game in a row with a weekend New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) East series against Bates looming while Gordon falls to 16-12 overall.

Freshman Sam Warren (Scarborough, Maine) went four innings and scattered three runs on eight hits to earn his first collegiate win on the mound for Trinity. Gordon freshman Derek Hudson (Hudson, N.H.) lasted just 2.2 innings and surrendered eight earned runs and 11 hits on the mound for the Scots.

Warren surrendered two runs in the top of the first thanks to a two-RBI single from senior Alex Smith
(Wethersfield, Conn.) that plated Dean Demers (Sandy Hook, Conn.) and Addison Tarr (Oxnard, Calif.). Trinity answered with three runs in the bottom of the second to take a one-run lead. Buckley delivered with a bases loaded, RBI single that gave way to Pezzella with the bases loaded who knocked a two-RBI single to left to put the Bantams up, 3-2.

Smith tied the game for Gordon with a sac-fly in the top of the third before Buckley and Pezzella came through again in the home half of the inning to reclaim the lead for Trinity. After a double from senior co-captain Scott Cullinane (East Greenwich, Conn) and back-to-back singles from sophomore Matthew Toth (New Canaan, Conn.) and junior Nick DiBenedetto (Fort Myers, Fla.), Buckley drove a ball to the outfield that brought home Cullinane and Toth for his second and third RBIs of the game. Pezzella then launched a double deep over the right fielders head to extend the Bantam lead to four before later scoring on a wild pitch to put Trinity up, 8-3, after three.

RBIs from Christian Hodge (Waltham, Mass.) and Ryan Paulsen (Latham, N.Y.) in the top of the fourth and seventh, respectively, gave Gordon six runs, but the Bantams offense proved too much for the Scots. Buckley drove home his fourth RBI of the game in the Trinity half of the fifth, coupled with an RBI from freshman Ben Reinisch (Troy, N.Y.) to make it a 10-6 ballgame in favor of the hosts. A solo homerun off the bat of senior Dan Pidgeon (Darien, Conn.) in the seventh capped off the 11-5 win for the Bantams.

Trinity returns to action on Friday, at home, for the first of a three-game series against the Bobcats of Bates College. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.