Teams: Baseball: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE BASEBALL FINAL SCORES
North Carolina Wesleyan 9, Tufts 1
Tufts 2, North Carolina Wesleyan 1

At Rocky Mount, NC
Thursday, March 19, 2009

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Mike Stefaniak went the distance for the win in the nightcap

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. -- Behind a stellar outing from senior pitcher Mike Stefaniak (Needham, MA), the Tufts baseball team won the second game of a double-header at North Carolina Wesleyan College, 2-1, on Thursday to earn a split. The Bishops won the first game 9-1. Stefaniak's win stopped a four-game skid for his own club and ended NCWC's eight-game winning streak.

The nightcap proved to be a pitcher's duel between starters Jonathan Shearon and Stefaniak. NCWC took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI-double by Zach Alexander that plated Pat Laffin. Five outs away from a shutout, Tufts rallied in the eighth. Shearon issued a walk to Tufts senior CF Dave Katzman (North Andover, MA), who came around to score on a David Leresche (St. Louis, MO) double to left-center. Leresche later scored the eventual game-winning run on a two-out single to right field by junior 1B Corey Pontes (Milton, MA) to give the Jumbos (2-5) their first lead of the day.

Stefaniak took the 2-1 advantage into the bottom of ninth, and after Luke Williford led off the inning with a double, he got out of the jam with a groundout, pop-up, and strikeout to end the game. The senior righty went nine complete and allowed one run on four hits while striking out five and walking none. Shearon (1-4) took the tough loss, giving up two runs on six hits over 7.2 innings.  Leresche finished 2 for 4.

Behind sophomore Justin Diener's first win of the season, North Carolina Wesleyan (12-11) had a 9-1 victory over Tufts in game one of Thursday afternoon's non-conference twinbill at Bauer Field. Wesleyan scored a pair of runs in each of the first three innings to forge a 6-0 lead. Zollie Woodlief ripped a two-run double in the first followed by a Luke Williford two-run triple in the second, while Justin Tuck blasted a two-run homer in the third.

Tufts got on the board in the fourth on an RBI-single by sophomore RF Ben Walkley (Trumbull, CT), but NCWC got it back in their half of the frame when Justin Batts singled home Williford. Up 7-1, the Bishops added two more scores in the fifth to secure the final margin of victory.

Diener (1-2) went six complete, giving up just one run on on six hits while striking out four. Freshman Kaleb Wessell then tossed a scoreless seventh to close out the game. Sophomore Derek Miller (Whitman, MA) suffered the complete game loss for the Jumbos. Walkley finished 2 for 3.

Friday was originally scheduled to be an off-day for Tufts, but they will make-up Sunday's postponement at Randolph-Macon tomorrow in a 3:00 start.

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