Dylan Bellinger '17 paced the EC baseball team at the plate in six games last week and played important roles in a pair of walk-off victories at historic Dunn Field. He boasted team highs across his slash line with an average of .435, on-base percentage of .500, and a sky-high .696 slugging percentage, having gone 10-for-23 with three doubles and one home run. He was also walked on four occasions, drove in four runs and scored five more.
On April 5, he played the hero, as the Elmira native helped the Purple and Gold walk off against Wells College by a final score of 3-2. With two outs and the winning run only 90 feet away in the bottom of the ninth, Bellinger smacked a single up the middle that allowed Sam Plaugher '20 to tally the winning run. It was the third of his game-high three hits in the non-league contest.
The power-hitting first baseman then flexed his muscle on Sunday afternoon in the opening game of Elmira's Empire 8 twin bill against Ithaca College. He finished 2-for-3 in the matinee, with both hits going for extra bases. Bellinger doubled in his first at-bat and tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning on a 2-0 pitch that he crushed over the wall in left field. That run was crucial down the stretch, as the Soaring Eagles overcame a 2-1 deficit in the final inning and picked up another 3-2 walk-off win, EC's first-ever triumph over its Route 13 rival.
A graduate of nearby Thomas A. Edison High School, Bellinger ranks among the conference's best hitters, as he sits fourth in both average (.407) and slugging percentage (.610), while ranking 10th in on-base percentage (.471). After leading the E8 in doubles in 2016, he is tied for fifth on the leaderboard with six two-baggers.
The Soaring Eagles will continue their conference slate on the road this weekend, as Elmira will travel to Hoboken, New Jersey, to take on Stevens Institute of Technology. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Friday, April 14, at 4:00 p.m.
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