The Wells College baseball team took two games in a three-game North Eastern Athletic Conference series at SUNY Poly on Sunday and Monday, April 7-8. SUNY Poly won the first game 7-4 but Wells won the second game Sunday 19-4 and Monday morning's series finale 10-8.
The Express improved to 4-2 in the conference this season and has won two of three games against both Penn State Berks and SUNY Poly, two teams that made the conference playoffs in 2018. Wells has a non-conference game Tuesday, April 9 at Hilbert College beginning at 3 p.m. and will host Penn State Abington for a three-game series on Saturday, April 13 at 4 p.m. and a Sunday, April 14 doubleheader beginning at noon.
Mark Yorkey had two hits for Wells and Kevin Spaeth drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt in the fourth. Jordan VanHerpe drew two walks and singles and scored a run. Jared Strait took the loss in five innings of work on the mound. He allowed six earned runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts.
The Wells bats exploded as the Express scored 19 runs on 19 hits, and the Express scored at least one run in each of the first six innings to cruise to the win.
The game was tied 3-3 in the top of the third when Wells scored six times on just three hits with four walks. Dylan Nolan had a three-run double to cap the third-inning rally. Wells added five more runs in the fourth as Kevin Spaeth, Jordan VanHerpe, and Dylan Nolan delivered run-scoring singles. Four more runs crossed in the fifth as Mark Yorkey doubled in a run and Anthony Aumick and Dylan Nolan had run-scoring singles in the inning.
Zach Kemp was the starting pitcher and allowed four runs in the first three innings, then settled in and threw three scoreless innings after that. In six innings he had seven strikeouts, allowed 11 hits, and two of the four runs allowed were earned. Matt Morgan pitched the final three innings with five strikeouts and one hit allowed.
Nolan was 4-for-5 at the plate with five RBIs. Yorkey doubled twice in a three-hit game and scored four runs. Tanner Dunkel and Jordan VanHerpe had three-hit games. Tyler Young and Kevin Spaeth had two hits each.
The series finale was played at Hamilton College and Wells used a five-run sixth inning to take the lead and held on for the win.
Wells led 3-0 in the third but SUNY Poly scored six in the bottom half to take the lead. It was 6-4 headed to the top of the sixth when Wells scored five times, all with two outs. A two-run double from Derek Shea and two-run single from Jordan VanHerpe did most of the damage, and a wild pitch allowed VanHerpe to score the fifth run of the inning. Wells drew five walks in the inning.
Poly scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to pull within 9-8, and Wells added an insurance run in the seventh on an RBI single by Kevin Spaeth.
Shea had three hits, drove in three, and scored twice. VanHerpe had a single, triple, drove in three and scored twice.
Derek Shea started and worked six innings allowing six earned runs on 12 hits with five strikeouts. Alexander Mott earned the save in relief with three strikeouts and no walks in three hitless innings.