ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College baseball team is back in action at historic Dunn Field for the second of a season-long five-game homestand on Wednesday, April 5, when the Soaring Eagles host the Express of Wells College. The non-conference tilt is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
The Soaring Eagles overcame a two-run deficit to tie Tuesday's non-conference game against Hilbert College at 8-all in the bottom of the seventh, but the Hawks scratched across three runs in the eighth and ninth while holding EC scoreless to pick up an 11-8 victory at Dunn Field. Hilbert pulled ahead by five runs early in the contest with four of those runs coming in the third inning. The Hawks didn't hit Elmira starter Blake Phelps '19 very hard, but they managed to register four RBI singles in the third. Phelps continued to battle on the mound despite giving up those bloop base hits, and the second-year righty recorded all three outs in the inning with strikeouts. The Purple and Gold took their lone lead of the contest in the home half of the frame, thanks in part to some key extra-base hits. Tommy Fogarty '20 led off with a double, followed by a three-bagger off the bat of Conor Bawiec '18. Two batters later, Nate Hanner '18 slugged a home run over the wall in left, and with two outs, Justin Iannotto '20 repeated the effort. Iannotto's two-run dinger turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 lead for the Soaring Eagles. Hilbert knotted the game in the fourth with a solo homer and tallied twice in the sixth to pull ahead. Bryce Plante '19 stroked a clutch double into right field to tie the game in the seventh, 8-8, but Nick Cottone '19 surrendered with three runs in the final two innings and was tagged with the loss.

Stellar Start For Iannotto
First-year catcher Justin Iannotto made his first career start last night against Hilbert and introduced himself to the Elmira faithful in style. Behind the dish, the rookie from South Setauket, New York, made a pair of beautiful throws to catch a pair of Hawks stealing. Perhaps even more impressive was his second at-bat of the evening, as Iannotto launched a 3-2 pitch over the 20-foot high wall in left center field. He's only the second freshman in the program's brief history to hit a home run, and he's the first player to homer in their first career start.

SCOUTING THE EXPRESS
In its first season as an NCAA program, the Wells baseball team is slowly finding its groove in 2017. The Express may stand at just 4-11 overall, but they've split three of their last four doubleheaders. That includes a split with the Soaring Eagles back on March 28, when the Express won the opener by a 3-0 score before falling in the nightcap 16-1. Last time out on April 2, Wells beat Utica College in the early game, 8-2, but was defeated by the Pioneers in the late game, 6-4. As a team, the Express boast the second-lowest ERA in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) at 5.87 and rank third with 7.51 strikeouts per nine innings. At the plate, the Express have hit 28 doubles, second-most in the league, but rank seventh out of the nine teams in the NEAC with a .257 batting average. Offensively, Dylan Nolan paces the squad with a .383 average and 18 hits, is tied for the lead with seven doubles, and is second with 10 RBIs. Brandon Shirley has proven to be the best of the team's many two-way players; he's batting .275 with a team-leading 12 RBIs while hurling a team-low 2.35 ERA.

SERIES HISTORY
Today's meeting between Elmira and Wells is the third of the 2017 season. After being dispatched by Shirley in the first game back on March 28, the Soaring Eagles belted 13 hits and cruised to a 16-1 victory in the nightcap. Dennis Rudolph '18 had two home runs in that bout set a program record as the first multi-homer game in EC's three-year history, while he tied a record he previously held with five RBIs. In that same game, Dylan Bellinger '17 finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored, and Joe Kidd '18 got the win on the mound with 4.0 innings of one-run ball.
 
UP NEXT
Following the showdown with the Wells Express, Elmira returns to Empire 8 action on Saturday, April 8, when the Soaring Eagles battle the Bombers of Ithaca College. The three-game weekend series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday at historic Dunn Field and concludes with a single game on Sunday, April 9. First pitch on both days is slated for 1:00 p.m.