Savastano delivers game-winning double in return to lineup as
Ravens erase 3-0 deficit
EASTON, Mass. (April 26,
2007) - Franklin Pierce, ranked eighth in this week's
National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division
II poll and 15th in the Collegiate Baseball
magazine Division II rankings, rallied for a 4-3 victory over
Stonehill College in ten innings in Northeast-10 Conference
baseball action at Gorman Field this afternoon.
Sophomore Scott Savastano
(Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) returned to the Franklin
Pierce lineup for the first time since suffering a hand injury in
the second inning of the Ravens season-opening win over West
Chester University and delivered a game-winning RBI double with two
outs in the top of the tenth inning as the Ravens completed a
comeback from a 3-0 deficit after four innings of
play.
Junior Kevin Renaud
(Southbridge, Mass./Southbridge) opened the tenth with a
double and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from freshman
Kevin Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern).
After a fly out, Savastano stepped up and made his first hit of the
season a big one as the Ravens snatched their eighth-straight win
and are now winners of 12 of their last 13 and 24 of 26.
Renaud hit 3-for-5 for Franklin
Pierce with a double, RBI and run scored, while senior
Vinny Pennell (Spencer, Mass./David Prouty) was
also 3-5 with an RBI and run scored.
Senior preseason All-American
Arric Mather (Danville, N.H./Winnacunnet) earned
his fourth win of the season (4-1) as he scattered two hits and
just a walk over six scoreless innings of relief, striking out
three. Junior Tyler Bishop (Milford, N.H./Milford)
retired Stonehill in order in the tenth, with one strikeout, to
notch his program-record seventh save of the
season.
Senior Adam Pardo (Hanover,
Mass./Hanover) was 2-for-5 for Stonehill with a stolen
base and RBI. Senior Blake Marston (Concord,
N.H./Derryfield School) was 2-3 with a double, while
junior Matt Orr (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) finished
1-3 with a stolen base and RBI.
Sophomore Justin Perry
(Wilbraham, Mass./Wilbraham-Monson) took the loss (2-2) on
the mound for the Skyhawks, yielding an earned run on three hits
with a strikeout and walk over 3.2 innings of relief. Sophomore
starter Matt Guisti (Hopkinton,
Mass./Williston-Northampton) went the first six and
allowed three earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts and two
walks.
Stonehill staked out a 3-0 lead
with single runs in the first, second and fourth innings. Senior
Tom Aldrich (New Canaan, Conn./Trinity Catholic)
led off the first with a walk and later scored on a Pardo single.
Junior David Fradette (Goffstown, N.H./Goffstown)
singled to lead off the second and later scored on Orr's single.
Another leadoff base-runner resulted in the Skyhawks third run as
sophomore Nate Weber (Hanson,
Mass./Whitman-Hanson) drew a walk and scored when Orr
reached on a fielder's
choice.
Franklin Pierce mounted its
comeback with three in the seventh. Pennell drove in the first run
with a single and later scored the tying run on a Renaud base hit.
The Ravens second run scored on a double-play ground out.
Mather, meanwhile, was cruising as
he allowed just a leadoff double to Marston in the sixth after
yielding a single to the first batter he faced upon entering in the
fourth. He retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced in the
outing.
Franklin Pierce (37-6, 22-2 NE-10)
has an off day on Friday before opening a three-game weekend series
with the University of Massachusetts Lowell that will go a long way
towards deciding the Northeast-10 regular season title. After
Saturday's noon doubleheader at LeLacheur Park, the teams will
conclude their series at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field on
Sunday at noon. The two teams are separated by just a single game
in the loss column entering UMass Lowell's game with Saint Anselm
tonight. The next closest team (Bryant University) sits four games
in the loss column behind the River Hawks.
Stonehill (15-22-1, 7-16-1 NE-10)
opens a three game weekend series against Saint Anselm College with
a doubleheader in Manchester, N.H., on Saturday at noon.
Boxscore
& Play-by-Play
