Lower-seeds improve to 7-0 in
NE-10 Tournament play as Owls to face No. 6 UMass Lowell
for NE-10 Championship on Sunday
LOWELL, Mass. (May 8, 2004)
- Fifth-seeded Southern Connecticut State University
posted a 2-1 victory over second-seeded Franklin Pierce to advance
to Sunday's championship game of the 2004 Northeast-10 Conference
baseball championships at LeLacheur Park tonight.
Southern Connecticut (30-21) will
face sixth-seeded UMass Lowell (21-21) in tomorrow's title game at
noon. The Owls must defeat the River Hawks twice to keep UMass
Lowell from claiming its fourth-straight NE-10 Tournament title.
Franklin Pierce (29-22) now awaits word of a possible
second-straight NCAA Division II Tournament berth to be announced
on Monday
morning.
Southern Connecticut kept the lower
seeded teams run perfect in this year's NE-10 Tournament as the
lower seeds have won all seven Conference tournament games so far
this week. The Owls erased a 1-0 lead after five innings with a
pair of runs in the top of the sixth and made it hold up to advance
to their second NE-10 title game.
Sophomore left-hander
Jeff Farrell (Naugatuck, Conn./Naugatuck)
posted his fourth win of the season (4-2) on the mound for Southern
Connecticut as he allowed just an earned run on five hits with five
strikeouts and three walks in 6.2 innings of work. Classmates
Steve Gatewood (Franklin, Mass./Franklin)
and Matt Hennessey (Wallingford, Conn./Lyman
Hall) allowed just a hit and a walk over the final
2.1 innings to close out the victory. Hennessey picked up his
second save of the season with a hitless inning of work, fanning
one.
Senior Orlando Lugo
(Providence, R.I./St. Raphael Academy) hit 1-for-3
for the Owls with a stolen base. Junior Tyler Call
(Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton) was 2-4 with a stolen
base, while freshman Paul Izzo (Cohoes,
N.Y./Cohoes) was 1-4 with an RBI.
Franklin Pierce squandered a strong
start from freshman Daniel Fournier (Worcester,
Mass./Holy Name), who went the distance and yielded
two earned runs on five hits with three walks and a season-high
matching 11 strikeouts. Fournier (6-3) struggled in the decisive
sixth inning, allowing three of the five hits against him with two
walks in the frame, but gave his teammates a chance to rebound by
retiring the last 11 batters he
faced.
Freshman Vinny Pennell
(Spencer, Mass./David Prouty) was 1-2 with an RBI and
stolen base. His steal in the fifth was his 16th of the
season to set a new freshman record at the College. Senior
Dante Blancarte (South Berwick, Maine/Amesbury
(Mass.)) was 2-4, while sophomore Mike
Feetham (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) was 1-3 and
scored the Ravens lone run.
The Ravens struck first in the
fifth as Feetham was hit by a Farrell pitch to lead off the frame.
Sophomore Randy Fenton (Worcester,
Mass./Doherty) sacrificed Feetham over to second
after a strikeout and Pennell followed with an RBI single to left
center with two away.
The Owls answered right back in the
top of the sixth. Junior Mel Davis (Bristol,
Conn./Bristol Eastern) led off the inning with a
single to center. Fournier nearly worked out of the jam by retiring
the next two batters, but he walked sophomore Joe Pagan
(Bridgeport, Conn./Bridgeport Central) and Izzo
followed with an RBI single through the right side to plate Davis
with the tying run. Call reached on an infield single to load the
bases, then Lugo drew a walk to score Pagan with the go-ahead run.
Franklin Pierce had plenty of
chances to tie the game or regain the lead down the stretch. The
Ravens loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but left them
stranded, had a runner on third with two out in the seventh and
failed to score with runners on first and second with one out in
the eighth.
Boxscore
& Play-by-Play
Earlier in the day, Franklin Pierce
avoided elimination with a 2-0 victory over top-seeded and No.
17-ranked Saint Anselm College.
Junior right-hander
Bryan Borowski (Clarksburg, Mass./Drury)
fired a two-hit shutout to lead the Ravens to victory as he struck
out five and walked one to pick up his fourth victory of the season
(4-5). Borowski allowed just two baserunners to reach second base
on the day and retired the last 15 batters he faced after yielding
a leadoff single in the fifth. He held the top third of the Saint
Anselm lineup to a combined 0-for-12, setting the trio down in
order in the bottom of the ninth.
Freshman Garrett Olson
(Norway, Maine/Oxford Hills) paced the Franklin
Pierce offense as he hit 2-for-4 with a triple, run scored and RBI.
Junior Eric Cavers (Otisfield, Maine/Oxford
Hills) finished 3-5 with a stolen base, while
sophomore Mike Chambers (Londonderry,
N.H./Londonderry) hit 1-4 with a run
scored.
Freshman Ryan Williams
(Lynnfield, Mass./St. John's Prep) pitched well in
defeat, allowing two earned runs on ten hits with three strikeouts
and a walk over nine innings.
Junior Josh Skowyra
(Brimfield, Mass./Tantasqua) and sophomore
John Welch (Medford, Mass./Malden
Catholic) both hit 1-3 for the Hawks.
The Ravens scored both of its runs
in the fourth inning. Chambers led off the frame with a single to
left before Olson followed with a triple to right-center. Olson
scored two batters later on a ground out to second base by freshman
Kim Hart (Gorham, Maine/Gorham).
Franklin Pierce had chances to
build on its lead, but left eight runners on base, including one in
each of the first five innings and two in the ninth.
Saint Anselm (30-20) also awaits
word on an NCAA Tournament berth after falling out of the NE-10
Tournament with two-straight losses.
Boxscore
& Play-by-Play
