BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – In a game that featured five home runs, the New Haven baseball team fell 14-5 at Bridgeport on a warm and windy Wednesday afternoon. The Chargers collected eight hits from seven different players and drew seven walks on the day, with junior Matt Chamberlain (North Branford, Conn./North Branford) going 2-for-3 with a triple and two walks. Junior Billy Huber (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) walked twice and clubbed a solo home run, and freshman Hunter Boag (Colts Neck, N.J./Colts Neck) launched a solo home run in his lone plate appearance. Freshman Thomas Eletto (Locust Valley, N.Y./Locust Valley) added a hit with two runs and a walk. The loss drops New Haven to 8-10 while the Purple Knights move to 10-15.
Huber got the Chargers going right out of the gate, towering a home run over the left field fence with two down in the first inning for the early 1-0 lead.
Eletto drew a leadoff walk to start the second, advanced to third on pair of groundouts, and then came home when Noah Budzik (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) smacked an 0-2 pitch up the middle for a RBI single, giving New Haven the 2-0 lead.
The game turned in the bottom of the second inning as the Purple Knights batted around and struck for five unearned runs in the inning with the help of three hits and four New Haven errors. After two throwing errors to begin the inning, the Chargers picked up two outs via a strikeout and a caught stealing, during which a run scored on the throw to cut the Chargers' lead to 2-1. After a dropped fly ball put another runner on, UB's Matt Rodriguez cranked a two-run homer to left field to put the Purple Knights in front 3-2. Bridgeport tacked on two more runs following a triple, single and another error to hold a 5-3 lead after two innings.
New Haven countered with a run in the top of the third to cut the deficit to two. Chamberlain ripped a pitch down into the right field corner for a triple with one out, and came in two batters later when George Pappas (Binghamton, N.Y./Susquehanna Valley) deposited a hit into center field for his first collegiate RBI.
Bridgeport added to the lead with three in the bottom of the fourth on a three-run homer to left field to take an 8-3 lead. They went on to add one more in the fifth when Tyler Popp led off with a single, stole second, advanced on a ground ball and came in on a wild pitch.
In the seventh inning, Bridgeport batted around for the second time, sending nine men to the plate and pushing across four runs on four hits. A two-run single with one out was immediately followed by a two-run double down the right field line to get the lead to double digits at 13-3.
The Chargers refused to go quietly in the eighth with Eletto leading off with a laser over the left fielder's head for a double, and later coming into score on a wild pitch to make it 13-4. Pinch hitting, Boag followed by launching a shot over the left field wall for a solo home run, his fourth round-tripper of the year, to make it 13-5.
Bridgeport finished off the scoring in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run on the first pitch of the inning to make it 14-5 on their fourth home run of the afternoon.
New Haven will get back into Northeast 10 Conference play this weekend with four cross divisional games beginning at Bentley on Saturday and finishing at Stonehill on Sunday. Doubleheaders on both days are scheduled for noon.
