Worcester, Mass. – The MIT pitching trio of Kiel Jindra (Oceanside, Mass.), Rob Bertucci (Belleville, Ill.) and Henry Zhu (Overland Park, Kan.) held Clark University to one hit and the visiting Engineers opened up their 2013 season with a 4-1 win over the Cougars (4-7) in New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball action on Friday afternoon.

MIT, who had their first three games of the season postponed due to weather, saw their three hurlers only yield one walk and fan 11 batters.

Clark, meanwhile, got an impressive performance on the mound as well, with Andrew LeBlanc (Farmington, Conn.) tossing seven innings of four-hit ball, while striking out nine batters for the second consecutive start.

The Engineers' season started off in fine fashion, as leadoff hitter Eben Bitonte (Wichita, Kan.) blasted LeBlanc's second offering over the left centerfield fence.

LeBlanc, however, settled down after the homerun, retiring nine of the next ten batters he faced until an unearned run crossed the plate in the fourth, making the score 2-0.

Clark answered back in the bottom of the frame, pushing across an unearned run of their own - without getting a hit. After an error put Nicholas O'Brien (Potomac, Md.) on second to lead off the inning, he was sacrificed to third by Dennis Glynn (Jamaica Plain, Mass.), then came around to score on Andrew Doolittle's (Hebron, Conn.) groundout.

Jindra was in total control for the Engineers on the mound, retiring 15 of the first 17 batters he faced. He didn't allow a hit in his six innings of work, walking just one batter and striking out eight.

Bertucci came in the game in the seventh and immediately found himself in trouble. He hit Doolittle, and saw pinchrunner Daniel Lima (Manchester, Conn.) go to second on a sacrifice by Austin Knief (Scarsdale, N.Y.). Jack Kenney (Saco, Maine) struck out swinging, but a passed ball put him on first and Lima on third with just one out. Bertucci then struck out Brian Sullivan (Auburn, Mass.) and got Zachary Richall (Tyngsboro, Mass.) to ground out to the shortstop to end the inning.

MIT tacked on two runs off of reliever Luke Crocker (Strafford, Vt.) on a Creed Mangrum (Sandy, Utah) RBI single to left and a Hayden Cornwell (Newport Beach, Calif.) sacrifice fly to right.

Clark got its lone hit in the bottom of the eighth with one out on a Matt Asdornvuttikrai (Winchester, Mass.) single up the middle. Bertucci, however, was able to force a comebacker by O'Brien that started a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play.

Zhu then entered in the ninth and retired the Cougars in order to pick up his 11th career save.

Mangrum was the only player on either roster with multiple hits, going 2-for-5 with an RBI.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon. The games, which were originally scheduled to be played in Cambridge, will now be played in Worcester.