BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams University Baseball team kept its postseason hopes alive with a split Sunday afternoon against Anna Maria College, falling 1-0 in nine innings in the first game, but coming back to win the second 3-1.
Roger Williams moved into a tie for ninth place with Gordon College, with identical 6-12 records. The Hawks are now two games behind Eastern Nazarene for the eighth and final playoff spot with four conference games left to play.
In the first game, both teams' starters were locked in from the start as Jim McNamara (Worcester, Mass.) and PJ Gouthro (Walpole, Mass.) each tossed scoreless inning after scoreless inning.
Anna Maria had an opportunity to put some runs on the board in the fourth, as Matt Guarnieri (Wallington, Conn.) and Jeff Scafidi (Worcester, Mass.) led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Guarnieri would eventually make his way to third, but ultimately ended up stranded in scoring position as Gouthro snagged a come-backer to get out of the inning.
On the other side, the Hawks looked like they would get a walk-off victory in the bottom of the seventh when Trevor Manzi (Beverly, Mass.) knocked a one-out triple to deep right field, just shy of the fence. Yet McNamara was able to strike out two of the next three batters to send the game to extra innings.
Anna Maria finally managed the first run of the game in the top of the ninth on a sacrifice fly JK Vaughn (Simsbury, Conn.), scoring Andy Fallon (Worcester, Mass.). With the one-run lead, McNamara shut the door in the bottom of the ninth, sandwiching a double around the final three outs of the game.
McNamara allowed only five hits over the course of his complete game shutout. Justin Hyland (Spencer, Mass.) was 3-for-3 in the game while Guarnieri and Scafidi had two hits apiece.
Gouthro took the hard-luck loss, tagged for only one run in nine innings of work. Grant Bolin (Simsbury, Conn.) went 2-for-4 with a stolen base for RWU.
Scoring in the second game came earlier, as the AMCats struck first in the second, with Fallon scoring on a sacrifice fly by Vaughn. The one-run deficit for Roger Williams only lasted until the third inning, when Bolin nailed a two-run double to center field to put the Hawks on top 2-1. RWU added one more in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Rob Zarthar (Dedham, Mass.).
That would be all Ben O'Shea (Reading, Mass.) needed as he went the distance, allowing only one unearned run on two hits and a walk in the game while striking out nine in the win. His counterpart, Zach Rafferty (Worcester, Mass.), allowed all three runs in 4.1 innings of work. Brendon Tivnan (Worcester, Mass.) came in and pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.
For the Hawks, Bolin finished with two hits, two RBI, and a run scored. Tim Georgen (Bristol, Conn.) also added a pair of hits and a run. Fallon and Jeff Lander (Gloucester, Mass.) had the only hits for Anna Maria in the game.
Roger Williams (8-21, 6-12 TCCC) steps out of conference play tomorrow and takes on Rhode Island College at 3:30 p.m. Anna Maria (16-15, 9-11 TCCC) hosts Newbury College Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. in its home finale.
