The Utica College baseball battled from a three run deficit in the sixth inning and scored six unanswered runs in the final three innings to earn a 13-10 victory over Lasell College on Wednesday night at JP Riddle Stadium. The Pioneers dropped a heart breaker, 16-15 against University of Wisconsin-Platteville, in the early game after taking a 12-8 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning.

Utica, which pounded out 38 hits over the course of two games Wednesday, improved its record to 2-2 overall and in four games the Pioneers' are averaging 10.75 runs per contest.

Junior Anthony Di Salvo (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) led the way for the potent UC offense Wednesday. He was 6-for-11 at the dish with a team-high five RBIs and he also score three times in two games. Freshman Chris Podlucky (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) also had a big day at the plate, tallying five hits, three RBIs, three runs scored, and in addition he earned a victory on the mound after striking out three in 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. Five different Pioneers tallied at least three RBIs on the day, including DiSalvo (five), Adam Bittel (New Hartford, CT/Northwestern Region) (four), Bryan Martinez-Torres (four), Russ Haentges (three) and Podlucky (three).

DiSalvo and Haentges did most of their damage in the first game as the Pioneers out hit UW-Platteville 19-18 and did not commit a single error over the course of nine innings, but the Platteville offense proved to be too much, tacking on eight runs in the bottom of the eighth, as they went on to earn the one run victory. DiSalvo went 4-for-5 in the game and drove in four runs, while Haentges went 4-for-4 with four runs scored and three RBIs. Haentges drilled an RBI triple down the line in the top of the ninth to keep the Pioneers comeback bid alive, with two outs, but UC came up just short and dropped the contest, 16-15.

Game two proved to be another high scoring thriller as the Pioneers crawled out of a three run hole in the sixth to earn a 13-10 win over Lasell. Kevin Oquendo pinch hit and ripped a two-RBI double to right centerfield in the top of the seventh to break the game open and give Utica a two run advantage. Bryan Martinez-Torres capped a 2-for-3 day with an RBI single in the top of the ninth to cushion the Pioneers lead. Martinez-Torres totaled four RBI on the evening and also scored two runs.

Sophomore starting pitcher Nate Sortino cruised through four scoreless innings unharmed but walked six batters in the course of two innings - leading to seven earned runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Sortino closed out the day with five strike outs but also surrender eight free passes.

The Pioneers return to action in their final game in Fayetteville on Thursday against Frostburg at noon.

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