Box Score CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 3 seeded MIT pounded out 14 hits, including three doubles by freshman Kendall Helbert (St. Louis, Mo.), and senior Aric Dama (Winfield, Ill.) won his seventh game by allowing just four hits over seven innings as the Engineers ran past No. 7 seed Elms College, 12-0, in a semifinal game of the ECAC Division III Northeast Baseball Championship. MIT, which set a school record with its 26th victory of the season, will move on to tomorrow's final against the No. 5 seeded U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
MIT (26-11) struck for the only pair of runs that it would need in the second inning. Sophomore Parker Tew (Chapel Hill, N.C.) reached on a fielder's choice and then moved up to second on a passed ball. Helbert then delivered the first of his three doubles to score Tew before sophomore K.J. Parent (Knoxville, Tenn.) singled to plate Helbert for a 2-0 lead.
That would be all the offensive support that Dama and the rest of the MIT pitching staff would need. Freshman Dan MacCormack (Shelton, Conn.) led off the game with a single for Elms (20-20), but Dama promptly picked him off first and allowed just three more hits over the next six innings while striking out four and issuing one walk. The Blazers had a runner on in each inning but one against Dame, but he pitched around any potential trouble and picked up a pair of double plays behind him to keep Elms in check.
After scoring two in the third, MIT put Elms in a seven-run hole that they could not get out of with a five-run third when they sent 10 hitters to the plate. Sophomore Creed Mangrum (Sandy, Utah) and senior James McKinney (Wakefield, R.I.) drew walks to start the inning for sophomore Hayden Cornwell (Newport Beach, Calif.) who parked a pitch over the fence in left to quickly give the Engineers a 5-0 lead. Later in the inning Helbert swatted his second double, this one scoring a pair of runs to make it 7-0.
MIT then put the finishing touches on the victory with five more runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by another two-RBI double by Helbert and an RBI single by junior Patrick Dayton (Archer City, Texas). Freshmen Alan Wang (Paoli, Pa.) and Michael Wymer (Flower Mound, Texas) each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to wrap things up for the Engineers.
Helbert finished his day with four hits in five trips to the plate, driving in five runs. Senior Ricardo Perez (Vienna, Va.) also had a multiple-hit day, finishing 2-for-4 and scoring a pair of runs. McCormack led Elms with his 2-for-4 afternoon. Freshman Thomas Weldon (Springfield, Mass.) was the starter and loser for the Blazers, giving up six runs on four hits in 2.1 innings.
MIT will move on to the championship game tomorrow against fellow New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference member Coast Guard, which knocked off No. 1 seed Suffolk University, 7-2, in the other semifinal. The Bears and Engineers will square off for the championship at Noon on Briggs Field.
