Springfield, Mass. -  Clark University split a Saturday afternoon twinbill with NEWMAC rival Springfield College, taking two of the three games during the two-day series to move into second place in their division. The Cougars won the first game of the day, 6-4 before dropping the nightcap, 6-1.

The Scarlet and White now sit at 7-10 overall and 4-4 in conference contests, with a big week of NEWMAC games coming up. Over the next seven days, Clark will play eight games – seven of them against league foes, including a huge three-game set with division rival Coast Guard beginning on Friday. Sandwiched between that are single road games against Eastern Nazarene (Monday), Babson (Tuesday) and MIT (Wednesday).

Game 1:  Clark 6, Springfield 4
The Cougars opened up the scoring in the top of the second when Michael Eglow (Delmar, N.Y.) singled to left field, followed by another single to right from Adam Chochrek (Foxboro, Mass.). With runners on first and second Tyler Hutchinson (Greene, Maine) sacrificed them both into scoring position and Jack Kenney (Saco, Maine), brought Eglow home on a sacrifice fly.

Clark would score three more runs in the top part of the fourth. The rally was fueled by a double roped off the bat of Hutchinson. Kenney followed that up with a single to put runners on the corners for Daniel Lima (Manchester, Conn.), and after a throwing error that allowed Hutchinson to score, Zach Richall (Tyngsboro, Mass.) found a gap to collect another single for Clark. With the bases juiced, Kyle Bonicki (Waterbury, Conn.) dribbled the ball to second, which plated Kenney from third and the final run of the frame came across on a passed ball.

Springfield answered in the fifth with three of their own highlighted by RBI singles from Corey Wilcox and Steve Starr.

Chochrek would score the fifth run of the game for Clark in the top part of the seventh. After he singled to center and advanced to second on an infield single by Hutchinson, Kenney walked to load the bases and a Lima groundout, gave the Cougars a little more cushion.

The Pride inched closer with an unearned run the bottom of the seventh, but Hutchinson smoked an RBI double that plated Chochrek for the final score.

Patrick Robinson (Watertown, Conn.) pitched five innings to earn the victory, giving up seven hits and three runs, while Joseph Gouveia (Nashua, N.H.) tossed four innings of strong relief, allowing just three hits and one unearned run to pick up the save.

Several Cougars had big afternoons, starting with Hutchinson, who had a career-best four hits. Meanwhile, Chochrek had three hits of his own to go along with two runs scored and both Richall and Bonicki had two hits apiece.

Mike DeMille (East Milton, Conn.) took the loss for the Pride as he surrendered four runs on nine hits.

Game 2: Springfield 6, Clark 1
Springfield scored two runs second, fifth and sixth innings to earn the twinbill split.

Clark actually took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Bonicki singled to left, stole second and eventually scored on a Matt Asdornvuttikrai (Winchester, Mass.) single to left.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, that wound up being their only run as the Pride took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second and never looked back.

Springfield tacked on two more runs in the fifth with a CJ Monroe RBI single and Starr scooted home on a passed ball.

Scoring wrapped up in the sixth on RBI singles by both Wilcox and Dan Bergami.

Conor Walsh (Marstons Mills, Mass.) suffered the loss for Clark, as the freshman allowed six runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings pitched. His counterpart, Tyler Kelly, meanwhile, tossed a complete game, allowing just four singles en route to his first win of the season.