NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – The Brandeis and WPI baseball teams were locked in a pitcher's duel through seven innings before the Engineers blew things open in the eighth to take an 8-1 decision at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough today.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis, 2-4.
• WPI, 6-5.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Judges struck first in the bottom of the second when senior 3B Brian King (Palos Verde, Calif. / Palos Verde) launched a solo home run to left-center field. The blast was his first of the season and the fifth of his career.
• Brandeis senior Asher Kaplan (Jamaica Plain, Mass. / Boston Latin) kept the Engineers under control until the fourth inning, when catcher Kyle DeRoma doubled home a pair of teammates who had walked.
• WPI increased the lead to 4-1 in the fifth on a RBI double by SS Jacob Hand and a run-scoring single 1B Joe Salvon, just the third and fourth hits of the game allowd by Kaplan, although three of his four walks came around to score.
• Judge sophomore James Murphy (Providence, R.I. / Moses Brown) threw 2.1 hitless innings, but WPI got to Brandeis's third reliever, grad student Marc Maestri (Katonah, NY / Somers) for five hits and four runs in the eighth to account for the final 8-1 score.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• King had two of three Brandeis hits, going 2-3 with a run and an RBI thanks to his home run.
• Senior LF Steven Simon (Hanover, Mass. / Hanover) had the team's other hit.
• Kaplan suffered the loss in his first decision of the season. He went 4.2 innings, allowing four hits, four earned runs and four walks with three strikeouts.
• WPI's Joseph Peregrim earned his first win of the campaign with eight innings of three-hit ball, walking one and striking out four. He allowed just one earned run.
• Hand led WPI, going 3-4 with two runs, an RBI and a double out of the lead-off slot. Six other Engineers had one hit apiece.
• DeRoma and Cash each had two RBI.

UP NEXT

• The Judges are slated to host Bates College in a three-game series this weekend at Stein Diamond, with a doubleheader on March 18 and one game on March 19.