DUDLEY, Mass. – The Elms College baseball team defeated Nichols College, 4-2, in a Thursday afternoon non-conference game on the campus of Nichols College. Led by a 2-for-4 day with a run and an RBI from first year Nicolino Iavicoli, the Blazers won a hard-fought battle that was never out of reach for the Bison. Leading the way for Nichols offensively was junior Cale LaCasse (Danielson, Conn.). He finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Suffering the loss for the Bison was sophomore Matthew Whitman (North Plainfield, N.J.). He went six innings giving up three runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out four as he drops to 0-2 on the season. On the hill and receiving the win for the Blazers was first year Zach LeBarron, bringing his record to 1-2.

Elms got on the board first when Don Morse hit a sacrifice fly to left field, making the score 1-0. The Blazers would score a run in each of the next two innings as Iavicoli made the score 2-0 in the top of the third when he scored on a wild pitch and then 3-0 in the third when he doubled home a run.

Nichols College was held off the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh when LeBarron ran into some trouble. The inning started with an Austin Martin (Cranston R.I) single. He advanced to third on a George Sergi (Blackstone, Mass.) double, knocking LeBarron out of the game. Junior Tim Smith (Plainfield, Conn.) hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Martin, cutting the score to 3-1. Sergi then came acrosse on a LaCasse single, bringing the score to 3-2.

Nichols threatened to score again in the eighth with the bases loaded and one out, but a line-drive double play would get Elms out of the inning unscathed. Elms added a run in the ninth on a two-run homerun that would turn out to be a one-run triple and an out at home plate. The Blazers hitter missed touching home plate as he finished his run around the bases. Nichols College head coach Joe Texeira noticed and had his pitcher appeal the call and won as the hitter was called out at home.

The Nichols ninth was a one-two-three inning on three ground balls, which ended the game 4-2 in favor of the Blazers.

With the win Elms improves to 9-10 on the season and Nichols College falls to 9-12.

Nichols is back in action Friday afternoon as they host New England College in a TCCC double-header starting at 2 p.m.

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