Hamden, CT – The Lasell University baseball team defeated the Albertus Magnus College Falcons, 11-10 in ten innings of GNAC play on Friday evening. The win propelled the Lasers to 12-7 overall and 1-1 in conference, while the loss set Albertus back to 3-9 overall and 2-1 in conference.

This game was full of offense, and it started right from the get-go as Albertus's Shawn Smith singled in the game's first run in the first inning. The next inning a walk and a double of the centerfield wall would give the falcons a 2-0 lead. A hit by pitch would give them runners on first and second with two outs and Elijah Spataj would step up and blast a three-run home run to left and extend the Falcon lead to five.

In the top of the third, CJ Mills got things going with a leadoff single and junior Tim Callahan would drive him in with a triple off the centerfield fence. Scott Lyon would drive a single up the middle to score Callahan and the Lasers cut the deficit to three. The next inning Ross Audet singled and Chris Bulk walked allowing Jared Whitby to double them in and pull the Lasers within one.

After holding the Falcons scoreless in the third, fourth and fifth innings, Ross Audet gave the Lasers a 6-4 lead after blasting a two-run home run to left. In the bottom half of the sixth Albertus struck back, tying the game at six on a sacrifice fly, and they would take the lead as Spataj sent his second home run of the game over the left field wall. After six the Albertus Magnus Falcons led, 8-6.

The seventh inning started with a bang for the Lasers as Callahan doubled off the right field wall. The very next batter, Brad Edwards sent a pitch over the wall to tie the ballgame yet again. The Falcons weren't done however as back-to-back-to-back doubles from Bobby Arent, Tyler Czeremcha and Adreil Espada gave them the lead once again, 10-8.

The Lasers couldn't muster anything on offense in the eighth, but their bullpen came up big yet again as Pierce Clare, and Darek Lallo held the Falcons scoreless and helped Lasell stay in the game.

The ninth inning the Lasers would see their last chance to stay alive. After loading the bases with no outs, Connor Freitas hit a sacrifice fly to right field to pull the Lasers within one with runners on first and second. After a fly out, Audet stepped to the plate with two down and the game on the line. In an absolute battle of an at bat, Audet fouled off pitch after pitch keeping himself alive. Finally, he would get his pitch and smoke it up the middle to score the tying run and keeping the Lasers alive.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Lasers brought on Ethan Bernardo who would strike out two Falcons and push the game to extra innings. In extras, the Lasers would battle hard yet again as Whitby led the inning off with a walk. A single from Mills and an intentional

walk to Callahan would load up the bases yet again for the Lasers. Lyon would step to the plate with one out in the inning and send a sacrifice fly out to center that scored Whitby and gave Lasell a 11-10 lead.

Matt Fletcher would come in for the save in the bottom of the tenth. Fletcher manufactured two fly outs and would strike out the final batter and clinch the extra inning win for the Lasers.

Bernardo (1-2) earned the win for the Lasers and Fletcher earned his first save of the season.

Offensively, Audet led the way with four hits and three RBIs. Callahan added a double, triple and single and drove in a run. Edwards and Lyon each had two hits and drove in two runs and Whitby drove in two runs and had a double. Mills added two singles and Bryan Baumann also added a double.

Up Next – The Lasers open up at home on Monday afternoon, hosting GNAC foe Rivier University. First pitch is slated for 3:30 pm.

By Camdyn Ames