Coast Guard 3, WPI 1 

Box Score

Worcester, MA --- Will Becker (Rockaway Beach, NY) tossed a five-hit complete game to help seventh-seeded Coast Guard upset second-seeded host WPI 3-1 in a NEWMAC Tournament first round contest on Thursday.  With the win, the Bears advance to this weekend's double elimination portion of the tournament while WPI is eliminated.

Becker dodged trouble in the first when WPI loaded the bases with nobody out.  He got out of trouble when third baseman Bret Nichols (Glendale, CA) turned a line drive into a double play and catcher Kevin Keefe (Belmont, MA) threw out a would-be base stealer to end the threat.

WPI's Conner Fahey (Cumberland, RI) was perfect through the first three innings until Adam Reckley (Temple, PA) led off the fourth with a double off the third base bag.  He would move to third on a groundout and scored on Brian Lisko (Waynesboro, PA) sacrifice fly to right.

Fahey (4-3) then retired the side in the fifth and sixth only to see Coast Guard extend the lead in the top of the seventh when Chuck Arena (Houston, TX) led off the frame with his fifth home run of the season.  The Bears added a key insurance run in the ninth when Kevin Higgins' (Plymouth, MA) RBI single platted Christian George (Rumson, NJ).

After Becker worked himself out of the first, he allowed just one hit through the next seven innings.  He ended with four walks and three strikeouts and threw 109 pitches to improve to 5-1.  He was aided by a flawless Bear defense, who did not commit an error on the afternoon.

WPI got onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the ninth when Scott McNee (Falmouth, MA) blasted his fourth home run of the season to left.  The Engineers got strong performances from Brandon Stacey (Framingham, MA) who singled and walked twice and Scott MacDonald (Gorham, MA) who laid down a pair of sacrifice bunts.  Fahey ended with eight strikeouts.

Coast Guard (11-16) will face third-seeded MIT, a 3-0 winner of Springfield, on Saturday at Babson at 11am.  WPI, who saw its four-game winning streak snapped, is not scheduled to play again until Tuesday when they travel to Elms for a non-conference tilt at 7:30pm.