The Husson University and Colby College baseball teams opened their play in their respective NCAA Division III Baseball Regionals on Friday morning. The Eagles are in the Willimantic, Connecticut Regional, while the Mules were sent to New York to compete in the SUNY Cortland Regional. Colby is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
At Eastern Baseball Stadium on the campus of Eastern Connecticut State University in Mansfield, Connecticut- Husson played tough against the #1 team in the country Endicott College, but the Gulls would tack on three runs late and knocked off the Eagles 6-2. Husson scored first in the contest in the top of the third inning. Tanner Evans led off with a walk, advanced to second on a passed ball, and scored on a double by Kevin Connolly. Endicott (42-2) took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth. Danny MacDougall led off with a walk, and then stole second. With one out, TJ Liponis hit a sharp line drive double to leftfield and Robbie Wladkowski followed with a two-run single to make it 2-1 Gulls. They made it 3-1 scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning, before Keegan Cyr pulled Husson back to within a run with an RBI single in the seventh. A bases loaded walk by Brenden Walsh, a sacrifice RBI flyout by Joey Frammartino, and an RBI single by Dylan Pecheco in the eighth put it away for Endicott who has now won 19 games in a row.
Connolly and Cyr had two hits a piece for Husson in the loss, snapping their seven game win streak. Matt Wallingford (5-3) pitched well in taking the defeat on the mound allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts in 5.0 innings of work. Jordan Gottesman (11-0) stayed unbeaten on the hill for Endicott giving up two runs on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts in 6.1 innings. Will Fox pitched the final 2.2 frames and earned his fourth save. Liponis, Wladkowski, Frammartino, and Pacheco had two hits a piece for the Gulls. The Eagles (23-11) are forced into the losers bracket and play an elimination game on Saturday at 11 a.m. against host Eastern Connecticut State. Endicott plays SUNY New Palz at 2:30 Saturday. New Palz knocked off ECSU in Fridays second game 4-1.
At Wallace Field on the campus of SUNY Cortland in Cortland, New York- Salve Regina University scored four times in the fourth inning, and three more in the seventh to pull away for a 10-5 win over Colby College. The Seahawks struck quickly to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Matt D’Amato. Noah Reichman got the Mules back even with an RBI sacrifice flyout in the top of the fourth inning. But Salve Regina was too much from there on, as they responded with a four run bottom of the fourth to take control. Michael Breen had an infield single that also scored a run on an error by Colby catcher Ethan Hillenberg, Brandon Grover slapped an RBI triple to right centerfield, and then Evan O’Rourke and D’Amato both had RBI doubles. D’Amato had a big day at the plate with four hits for the Seahawks, who improved their record to 34-8.
Ryan Grace and Patrick Shake both had two hits each in the loss for Colby, who falls to 29-11. Derek Woods (6-2) took the pitching loss allowing five runs on 10 hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Along with the four hits and two RBI by D’Amato for Salve Regina in the victory, O’Rourke had three hits with two RBI, Breen and Wil McCarthy had three hits each, while Hunter Yaworski and Christian Homa also chipped in two hits a piece. Brayden Clark (4-1) won on the hill giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits with three walks and one strikeout in 6.0 innings. Tommy DelVecchio picked up his third save. Colby will play an elimination game on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. against Washington & Jefferson College. Salve Regina plays host SUNY Cortland at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Red Dragons beat Washington & Jefferson 9-2 in Fridays second game.
Recaps by Chris Lessner
