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AUBURN, N.Y. (May 29, 2021) – The USMMA baseball team lost to Mitchell College, 4-2, in Merchant Marine's second game of the NCAA DIII Auburn Regional double-elimination tournament on Saturday morning.
 
After dropping "The Battle of the Mariners," USMMA's record falls to 17-4 on the season and they'll play an elimination game later today at 4:30 p.m. against the loser of the Region's next game (#3 Keystone vs. #5 Tufts).
 
Mitchell improves to 26-8 and will play Cortland in an elimination game to close out the action on Saturday night.
 
All four of Mitchell's runs came in the bottom of the first inning, as they got to Merchant Marine's freshman starter Tyler Reistetter (Dickinson, Texas) early. A leadoff double by freshman Robbie DelaCruz was followed immediately by an RBI single by sophomore Lelo Martinez. After a double play by USMMA, Mitchell loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch and two straight singles. Junior John-John Jose came up with a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle to make it 3-0, and then Mitchell added another on a fielding error.
 
Reistetter settled down and pitched great the remainder of the morning – finishing with a complete game, allowing just four more hits over the next seven shutout innings. He suffered the loss, giving up the four runs (three earned) on nine hits with three strikeouts, and saw his record drop to 2-1.
 
Merchant Marine got one run back in the top of the third. Senior Jacob Kelly (Norfolk, Va.) drew a one-out walk then stole second before scoring on a throwing error by the Mitchell pitcher on a sacrifice bunt attempt by junior Brayden O'Connell (Beaver Dams, N.Y.). USMMA got one more on base – a two-out walk by junior Garrett Aichele (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), but left the two runners stranded with an inning-ending fielder's choice.
 
USMMA was able to muster up just one more run off of Mitchell's sophomore starter Camren Varney, and it came in the top of the seventh. Freshman Kellen Brown (Fort Pierce, Fla.) started if off by reaching on an error and senior Timmy Chase (Scituate, Mass.) followed with a single to make it first and second with no outs. Senior Jack McCann (Newark, Del.) laid a sac bunt down the first base line that moved the runners up, and Kelly knocked in Brown with an RBI groundout to short. Chase was stranded at third after a fly out to left to end the inning.
 
Like Reistetter, Varney pitched a complete game for Mitchell, allowing two unearned runs on just four hits with four strikeouts. He moves to 5-0 on the season.
 
The Mariners' next game at 4:30 p.m. will be an elimination game with the loser's season coming to an end. They'll face the loser of Saturday's second game featuring #3-seed Keystone against #5-seed Tufts which is getting underway at 1:15 p.m.
 
Live stats and a live video feed of Saturday's second game at 4:30 p.m. will be available with links on the USMMA Baseball Schedule Page. The updated Auburn Regional schedule is also available on the Tournament Website, set up by host Wells College, at this link.
 
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