Baseball bounces Endicott and Salve Regina to move on to CCC Championship

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BEVERLY, Mass. - The Roger Williams University Baseball team eliminated top-seeded Endicott College and sixth-seeded Salve Regina University to earn a berth to the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship Game.

Roger Williams (18-19) will face off against #3 Curry College tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. in the championship game. The Hawks will need to defeat the Colonels twice to secure the title, as Curry enters the game 3-0 in the double elimination format.

The Hawks began the day with a 5-4, 10-inning victory over the Gulls to move into a showdown with Salve Regina, who faltered 5-6 against #3 Curry College earlier in the day.

Against Endicott With the game tied at 2-2 after three innings of play, Roger Williams would strike for two in the top of the fifth to take a 4-2 advantage into the bottom of the ninth before Endicott would stage some late game heroics to tie it back up at 4-4 before falling in the 10th.

Luke Morse (Westford, Mass.) started and went two innings, allowing two unearned runs on two walks and two hits while striking out one. He was followed for the next two innings by Nick Quattro (Canton, Conn.) who allowed two earned runs on two hits and two walks while also striking out one. JJ Branch (Milford, Mass.) would come in to get an out before turning it over to freshman Owen Bautze (Sudbury, Mass.) who pitched four scoreless innings of one hit ball to keep the Gulls in the game and enable the comeback.

Roger Williams starter George Lund (West Hartford, Conn.) went six and a third strong innings, allowing just two runs and six hits while walking two and striking out two as well. He gave way to Sam Bennett (Andover, Mass.) who pitched one and two thirds innings of shutout ball to get it to the ninth.

Once in the bottom ninth, with Endicott trailing 4-2 and with their season on the line, the Gulls started the rally right away. Freshman Michael DeDonato (Chelmsford, Mass.) started the inning with a walk before Cam Farnham (Farnham, Mass.) singled to put men on first and second without an out. Junior Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) would advance the runners with a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt to give Endicott runners in scoring postion with just one out. Looking to keep the double play in order at any base, the Hawks would walk Harry Oringer (Dartmouth, Mass.) to load the bases. Team RBI leader Mike Kochiss (Fairfield, Conn.) lofted a sac fly to left to score the team's third run and advance Farnham and DeDonato to third and second. Anthony Serina (Portsmouth, R.I.) would then single to left center to score Farnham and knot the score at 4-4 after a full nine innings.

Heading into extra innings, junior Davarn Nova (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) would take the mound. Nova got two quick outs by inducing a fly out and a ground out. The junior pitcher then wound up striking out Sean Gaffney (Simsbury, Conn.) but a passed ball on the swinging third strike enabled the freshman to reach first and extend the Salve half of the inning. A successful stolen base attempt would put Gaffney on second with two outs. That allowed Jamie Timothy (Cohasset, Mass.) to single into left, advancing Gaffney to third, before an error advanced both runners, Timothy to second and Gaffney home for an unearned run to give RWU the 5-4 lead for good.

In the second game against Salve Regina, Alex Perry (North Attleboro, Mass.) had a two-out single up the middle in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 23 games, second only in the Seahawk record books to NCAA record-holder Damian Costantino's 60-game hit streak from 2001 to 2003.

Both starting pitchers (both freshmen) - Hawks' Jimmy Smith (Walpole, Mass.) and Seahawks' Tommy Seaver (Rocky Hill, Conn.) - allowed just one hit apiece through the first three innings. Roger Williams reached Seaver with back-to-back base hits in the fourth to produce the game's first run. Bryan Terzian (Westport, Conn.) doubled to right center with one out and Shawn Cariglio (Milford, Conn.) followed with a run-scoring single on the right field line.

Smith, who earned his first collegiate pitching victory against Salve Regina last month, had the one-hit shutout going into the sixth. Kelly and Alek Kucich (Old Brookville, Conn.) had consecutive one-out singles before Smith induced an inning-ending double-play grounder.

Senior Joe Haley (No. Kingstown, R.I.) walked to lead off the seventh against Smith. Neil followed with a single. Smith got the next two Seahawks on a foul pop and a fly to left, and almost escaped damage before Cory Blankmeyer (Centerport, N.Y.) singled through the right side to bring in Haley with the tying run.

In the Seahawk eighth, Kelly led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Kucich. New pitcher Sam Bennett (Andover, Mass.) issued an intentional free pass to the dangerous Perry. The equally dangerous Haley lined out into a double play.

Bennett got the Seahawks in order in the ninth. Freshman Matt Moskal (Hamden, Conn.) opened the Hawk ninth with a single off Seaver. After a sacrifice bunt, Matt Wood (Walpole, N.H.) relieved Seaver. The Hawks added two more baserunners, one an intentional walk, to load the bases with one out.

Kevin Baker's (Wilbraham, Mass.) fielder's choice grounder was stopped by a diving Donohue at a pulled in shortstop. The Seahawk senior rolled to uncork a throw to the plate but it was not in time to Vargas for the force as Moskal made the Hawks winners in their second straight elimination game.

- Release courtesy of Endicott College and Salve Regina University

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