MILTON, Mass. – Curry College absorbed its first conference loss of the season, falling 8-3 to Eastern Nazarene in The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) baseball action Friday afternoon Milton. The Lions improved to 9-7 overall and 2-2 in the TCCC, while the Colonels fell to 10-6 overall and 7-1 in league play.
 
ENC started the scoring in the bottom of the first as leadoff hitter Victor Torres (Bronx, NY) singled to right field. The following batter, Jimmy Williams (Truckee, CA), sacrificed Torres to second. Curry pitcher James Page (Weymouth, Mass.) then struck out Danny Rodriquez (Bronx, NY), but the sophomore took advantage of a dropped third strike and reached first, putting runners on first and second. A walk later loaded the bases for Luke Matthews (Boise, ID), who stroked a two-RBI single to left field. One out later, freshman Joel Torres (Bronx, NY) belted a double to the left field fence to clear the bases and give the Lions an early 4-0 lead.
 
ENC pitcher Jonathan Ovalles (Bronx, NY) completed a 1-2-3 5th inning and carried a one-hitter into the sixth.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, the Lions tacked on three more runs. Torres singled to left, followed by a Williams single to right that Torres to third.  Rodriquez then brought both runners around with a home run to centerfield that made the score 7-0.
 
The Colonels finally capitalized with base runners on in the top of the 6th inning.  Jesse Bruinsma (Lynnfield, Mass.) reached on an infield single, Rick Vail (Lynnfield, Mass.) walked, and senior Tim Sweeney's (Walpole, Mass.) RBI single through the infield scored Bruinsma. A passed ball advanced runners to second and third and the Colonels scored again on an infield ground out. Then an errant throw to first, pulling first baseman Matthews off the bag, allowed run number three to cross home plate before the inning ended with the Colonels back to within four at 7-3. ENC tacked on another run in the bottom of the 6th to account for the 8-3 final.
 
Ovalles improved to 2-0 with six innings of work, giving up 3 hits, 4 walks and 1 earned run. Page fell to 2-2 after 4 1/3 innings of work, giving up 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 earned runs.
 
Eastern Nazarene faces Wentworth in a doubleheader Saturday, April 3 at Quincy’s Adams Field at 2:00 pm.  Curry has a doubleheader on the same date against New England College in Henniker, NH starting at 12:00 pm.

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