Farrell stymies Ravens bats again as Owls avoid
elimination
RINDGE, N.H. (May 19, 2006)
- Fourth-seeded Southern Connecticut State University
avoided elimination with a 9-3 victory over top-seeded and
11th-ranked Franklin Pierce in game five of the 2006
NCAA Division II Northeast Regional at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas
Field this afternoon.
Southern Connecticut (34-18) will
now face sixth-seeded Dowling College (31-14), who avoided
elimination earlier in the day with a 2-1 triumph over
second-seeded University of New Haven (35-12), tomorrow at 1 p.m.
Franklin Pierce (41-11) will play the loser of tomorrow's first
game between third-seeded UMass Lowell (37-12) and fifth-seeded
Dominican College (41-16) at 4:30 p.m. The UML/Dominican was
scheduled to be played today, but a four-hour rain delay at the
outset pushed the games back, forcing it to tomorrow morning.
Southern senior left-hander
Jeff Farrell (Naugatuck, Conn./Naugatuck)
again showed his dominance over Franklin Pierce, improving his
career record against the Ravens to 5-0. He allowed three earned
runs (all off solo homers), while scattering 11 hits and walking
none with nine strikeouts over 8.1 innings.
Junior Jose Ortiz, Jr.,
(Waterbury, Conn./Crosby) sparked the offense as he
finished a perfect 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, two RBI and two
runs scored. Junior Jim McLaughlin (Medway,
Mass./Medway) was 1-4 with a double and three RBI,
while sophomore Joe Kahlden (Norwalk, Conn./Fairfield
Prep) finished 2-4 with two runs scored. Senior
Joe Pagan (Bridgeport, Conn./Central)
chipped in a solo homer and junior Sean Morgan
(Maynard, Mass./Maynard) was 2-2 with an RBI.
Senior All-American
Bryan Duplissie (East Swanzey, N.H./Monadnock
Regional) paced Franklin Pierce's 12-hit attack,
going 2-for-3 with a double and one of the Ravens three solo
homers. Freshman Scott Savastano (Plymouth,
Mass./Plymouth North) was 2-4 with a home run, while
junior Vinny Pennell (Spencer, Mass./David
Prouty) hit 3-for-4 with a pair of stolen bases.
Sophomore Matt Anderson (Medford,
Mass./Medford) added two hits, while junior
All-American Garrett Olson (Norway, Maine/Oxford
Hills) chipped in a homer.
Junior right-hander
Daniel Fournier (Worcester, Mass./Holy
Name), who fired a no-hitter in his regular season
start against SCSU on March 28, suffered the loss (5-3) as he
allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits with three strikeouts
and three walks in four-plus innings of work.
Southern gave Farrell plenty of
room to work with, staking out a 3-0 lead after three and an 8-0
advantage through six, before Savastano's solo homer broke the ice
for Franklin Pierce in the top of the seventh. The Owls opened the
scoring with a single run in the second as Morgan delivered an RBI
single to left with one out.
SCSU took advantage of the second
of Franklin Pierce's four errors on the afternoon and a wild pitch
in a two-run third. Freshman Michael Diaz (Monroe,
Conn./Masuk) led off with a double, was sacrificed to
third and scored on a wild pitch. Ortiz, who walked and advanced to
third on the wild pitch and a throwing error, scored on a ground
out.
The Owls tacked on three more in
the fifth, sparked by McLaughlin's two-run double that chased
Fournier. He later scored on a sacrifice fly. Southern took
advantage of two more Franklin Pierce errors in a two-run sixth,
capped by a two-run single from Ortiz.
Franklin Pierce got on the board
with Savastano's homer in the seventh, but Pagan answered with a
solo shot of his own in the home half for the Owls. Olson and
Duplissie hit back-to-back homers to round out the scoring for the
Ravens in the eighth.
Boxscore
& Play-by-Play
