BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams University Baseball team split a doubleheader against Colby-Sawyer College Saturday afternoon. The Hawks won the first game 3-0 while the Chargers won the second 8-6 for their first Commonwealth Coast Conference victory of the season.
The Hawks' first run of the game came in the second inning when Kevin Simpson (Londonderry, N.H.) singled to get on base, then stole second to get into scoring position. Alex Perry (Glastonbury, Conn.) would single through the right side to get Simpson in to score. The Hawks would get two more runs to take a 3-0 lead. Perry added another RBI single in the fourth followed by Bill Lambert (Hanover, Mass.) taking advantage of a fielding error to score in the fifth.
Yet the strongest performance from the Hawks came from starter PJ Gouthro (Walpole, Mass.). Gouthro struck out a career-high 11 batters in the game, pitching 6.2 innings and giving up three hits and only one walk. The one walk was surrendered to pinch hitter Justin Martin (Lebanon, N.H.) with two outs in the top of the seventh, which sparked a potential rally for the Chargers.
After the walk, closer Billy Dunn (Fiskdale, Mass.) was brought in for the Hawks for the next batter. Yet pinch hitter Shane Hoagboon (Mayfield, N.Y.) got on via a base hit, then advanced to second on a wild pitch, putting runners at second and third with the tying run at the plate. Dunn escaped the jam by inducing a groundout to third for the final out of the game and his fifth save of the season.
Gouthro picked up the win for the Hawks, while Perry went 3-for-3 at the plate with two RBI. Lambert, Simpson, and Jamie Dahill (South Boston, Mass.) each had a hit and run scored.
Ryan Gillan (Alton, N.H.) took the loss for Colby-Sawyer, giving up three runs on nine hits in six innings of work. Chris Gaeta (Lynn, Mass.), Tom White (Lisbon, N.H.), and Greg Mehuron (Waitsfield, Vt.) each picked up a hit for the Chargers.
The offense picked up for the Chargers in the second game, as Colby-Sawyer opened up the first with three runs, led by Chris Hartery's two-RBI double. The Hawk deficit would not last long, with Perry tying the game in the bottom half of the inning on a three-run homerun to left field.
Hartery would give the Chargers the lead again with a sacrifice fly in the second to make it 4-3. Yet the big blow for Colby-Sawyer came in the third inning, when the Chargers loaded the bases via three walks in the inning. Facing a full count with two outs, Gaeta cleared the bases after knocking a grand slam to left field to put the Chargers up by an 8-3 margin.
The five-run gap proved to be too much for the Hawks to overcome, as RWU only managed two runs in the bottom of the second and one more in the seventh en route to Colby-Sawyer's first conference win of the season.
Mike Bertuccio (Millstone Township, N.J.) earned the win, allowing one run in four innings of relief. Gaeta finished 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBI, with Hartery going 2-for-3 with three RBI and one run scored.
Sean Scanlon (Lebanon, Conn.) took the loss, giving up six runs in 2.1 innings of work. Perry ended with a home run, a run scored and four RBI in four at-bats, while Dahill went 2-for-2 with a walk, an RBI, and two runs scored.
Roger Williams (8-6, 3-1 TCCC) will travel to Wentworth Institute of Technology Sunday afternoon for a 12:00 p.m. game, while Colby-Sawyer (4-9, 1-3 TCCC) will be at Anna Maria College Sunday at noon.
