BEVERLY, Mass.—Gordon Baseball flipped the script on its 2017 story by holding on to beat Western New England 5-3 in the knockout round of the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament. Freshman Morgan Hyde (Thomson, Ga.) pitched a complete-game gem, allowing only one earned run spread across eight hits to keep the Fighting Scots alive in the conference chase.
 
Just two days after suffering an 11-2 defeat at the hands of the Golden Bears in Springfield, Gordon sent the three seed packing by racing out to a big lead in the middle innings. Western New England turned up the heat in the latter innings, but Hyde was able to work out of several jams with minimum damage to earn the win.
 
Hits were hard to come by early as both teams had to deal with some thick fog settling into the coastline right around first pitch.
 
As the mist began to lift in the fifth, Gordon's patience at the plate started to work wonders for a rally opportunity. Matt Moffat (Stratford, Conn.) earned a seven-pitch walk to lead off the frame before heading to second on a Hyde single through the middle of the diamond. Senior Dean Demers (Sandy Hook, Conn.), trying to avoid playing his final game in a Gordon uniform, sent a chopper over the head of the pitcher that advanced both runners into scoring position.
 
Daniel Quint (Wells, Maine) accomplished a similar fate with a ball topped over the pitcher's head to the charging shortstop. Western New England tried to get Moffat out at home on the play, but a good jump for the junior outfielder allowed him to score easily on the slide.
 
With two outs in the inning, Gordon added another on a wild pitch.
 
The Fighting Scots struck again for three more in the top of the sixth to put the favored Golden Bears in a tight spot entering the final third of the contest. An error on the opening play of the frame opened the door for the Fighting Scots to get another good inning going, but Western New England sent the next two Scots down in order with the runner only advancing to second.
 
Hyde delivered with his second single of the game, this time scoring Alec Willey (San Diego, Calif.) from second on a ball that had eyes through the left side. Demers kept things going by getting hit, setting up Quint for another RBI chance and he made good on it. The sophomore stung a pitch into right field to score Hyde before a passed ball scored Demers in the next at-bat for a 5-0 lead.
 
The Golden Bears got one back in the bottom of the sixth. Jared Rosenblatt (Avon, Conn.) had been a thorn in Gordon's side in each of the previous three matchups and he struck again with a two-out RBI single to plate the inning-opening walk.
 
Disaster nearly struck for the Scots in the next inning when the Golden Bears nearly doubled their hit count for the game to that point. Each of the first three batters singled, including a perfect bunt by Kevin Johnson (Waterford, Conn.) to load the bases with nobody out. Alex Loparco (Riverside, Conn.) slapped a ball to the left with the infield playing in, leaving the runner at third dead in the water. However an errant throw to home scored the run and kept the trouble brewing for Gordon.
 
WNE All-CCC standout Daniel Morin (Salem, N.H.) stepped to the plate representing the go-ahead run. The senior sent an 0-2 pitch back up the middle where Gordon freshman second baseman John Lagerfeldt (Stratford, Conn.) sucked up the grounder, tagged second and jump threw a ball over to first. Demers scooped the ball beautifully from the turf to complete the double play.
 
The Golden Bears scored a run on the two-out play, but Hyde got the next batter to fly out to left to leave it a two-run game in the visitor's favor.
 
Hyde controlled the Golden Bears in the final two innings, allowing only one base runner in the stretch to close out the victory. The two-way player had a game-high two hits and two runs scored to add to his five K's on the mound.
 
Western New England outhit Gordon 8-6 in the contest, led by Erik Lacaire (Worcester, Mass.) and Brian Valeriano (Stratford, Conn.).
 
Hyde improves to 4-4 for the Fighting Scots.
 
Gordon (12-21) moves on to play Endicott tomorrow afternoon beginning at noon. The Fighting Scots will have to beat the second-seeded Gulls twice to have a chance to move on to the CCC championship series. Western New England finishes the year at 22-18.