Duplissie, Ravens roar to 18-0 lead after six

SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 21, 2005) - Franklin Pierce, receiving votes in both this week's Collegiate Baseball magazine and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II polls, rebounded from a pair of losses on Sunday with a commanding 18-7 victory over Eckerd College at Turley Field tonight.

Junior right-hander Bryan Duplissie (East Swanzey, N.H./Monadnock), a transfer from Wheaton (Mass.) College, made his Franklin Pierce debut on the mound and also led the Ravens offense. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth and surrendered just one base hit and four walks with six strikeouts in six shutout innings of work.

Duplissie also led the Ravens, who roared out to an 18-0 lead after six innings, as he finished 2-for-4 with a pair of homeruns (the first of his Raven career) and four RBI. Junior Shawn Hayes (Charlton, Mass./Holy Name) hit 2-3 with a double, homer and five RBI.

Classmate Elliott Shea (Jaffrey, N.H./Conant) was 4-5 with a double, homer, three RBI, three runs scored an a stolen base, while freshman Steve Carr (Lynn, Mass./St. Mary's) finished 3-5 with a double, homer and two RBI. Sophomore Garrett Olson (Norway, Maine/Oxford Hills) chipped in by hitting 3-5 with a double and four runs scored.            

Senior Casey Weseman (Crystal Lake, Ill.) belted a solo homerun for Eckerd, while sophomore Alfredo Cabale (Tampa, Fla.) was 2-4 with a double. Junior Thomas O'Konski (Braintree, Mass.) registered a two-run double in his lone plate appearance, while sophomore Corey Sylvester (Tampa, Fla.) laced a two-run single in his lone at bat.

Sophomore Jon Chapman (Bradenton, Fla.) took the loss for Eckerd, yielding seven earned runs on seven hits with a strikeout in three innings of work.

Franklin Pierce jumped ahead with three runs in the top of the first as Hayes followed a leadoff single from Olson and a Shea double with his first career home run. The Ravens added three more in the second as Carr roped his second homer of the season, followed by an Olson single and Shea's second homer of the spring.

After the Ravens added a single run in the third on Duplissie's first homer of the game, they broke the game open with seven in the fourth. Hayes registered an RBI double, followed by a three-run bomb from Duplissie and an RBI double from junior Mike Feetham (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy). Carr sparked a four-run sixth with an RBI double to round out the Ravens scoring.

Eckerd scored seven runs off three Franklin Pierce relievers over the final three innings, including four in the bottom of the ninth.

Franklin Pierce (3-2, 0-2 NE-10) returns to action tomorrow night when it faces consensus No. 1-ranked University of Tampa at 7 p.m. Tampa eliminated the Ravens from the 2003 College World Series in their only other meeting all-time. Eckerd (9-19, 1-5 SSC) hosts Southern Connecticut State University on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
 

Batteries:
FP - Bryan Duplissie, Keith Brouillard (7), David Myers (9), Steve Stocki (9) and Steve Carr, Matt Anderson (9).
EC - Jon Chapman, Jon Courtemanche (4), Steve Mathews (4), Joe Sinicola (7) and Craig Albernaz, Alfredo Cabale (5).  

WP: Duplissie (1-0)
LP: Chapman (0-1)
HR: Duplissie 2 (2), Shea (2), Carr (2), Hayes (1), Weseman.