AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Nick Iadevaio threw a complete game to lead the Lesley University baseball team to a 5-2 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Saturday night at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex. With the win, the Lynx improve to 2-1, while the Engineers drop to 0-3.

Iadevaio allowed two runs on seven hits over 9.0 innings, striking out nine and walking one. RPI junior starter Brendan McNerney struck out a career-high 13 over 5.0 innings, surrendering a run on just one hit and five walks.

Lesley opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Steven DePalma singled up the middle with one away. He eventually moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.

Two scoreless frames followed, before RPI rallied for a pair of runs into the top of the seventh. Austin Lawrence singled home Jack Vaccari after the sophomore first baseman tripled to right center. Senior J.T. Sawyer then plated Lawrence to give the Engineers a 2-1 lead.

The Lynx answered in the bottom half of the inning, however, as junior Ryan Pumphret delivered a two-run double to the gap in right center, scoring Matthew Warner and Vincent Taliercio.

Freshman Christopher Papallo added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth, tripling down the right field line off of RPI freshman Chris Grome.

As a team, RPI struck out a combined 19 batters, including five in 1.2 innings by freshman Jake Nichols, who accomplished the rare feat of setting down four batters on strikes in a single inning in the sixth. McNerney's strikeout total was the highest by an RPI pitcher since Sean Conroy '15 had 16 against Bard on April 2, 2015. McNerney's previous career-high was nine, which he reached both in 2016 and 2017. 

Offensively, Lawrence went 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI, while senior captain Christian Spagnuola was 1 for 2.

The Engineers are back in action tomorrow night, when they take on Gordon (6:30pm). Lesley takes on Minnesota-Morris in a doubleheader on Tuesday (10am).