Southpaw fans eight
Link to "On the Road with the Ravens" East Regional
blog
Crawford was dominant on Thursday night against Saint Anselm to
pick up his seventh win of the season.
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MANCHESTER, N.H. (May 17,
2012) – Graduate student left-hander Jack Crawford
(Montgomery, N.Y.) fired a three-hit shutout and struck
out eight on Thursday night, as the No. 14/25 nationally ranked and
third-seeded Franklin Pierce University baseball team defeated
fourth-seeded Saint Anselm, 3-0, on the first day of the NCAA
Baseball Championship East Regional, hosted by Southern New
Hampshire at Penmen Field. Senior left-hander John Healy went the
distance and tossed a seven-hitter in defeat for Saint Anselm.
With the win, Franklin Pierce
improves to 37-17-1 and advances to play at 7 p.m. Friday against
fifth-seeded Wilmington (Del.) (33-16) in a winner's bracket game.
With the loss, Saint Anselm falls to 28-24-2 and will face
elimination at 3 p.m. Friday against second-seeded Le Moyne
(40-14-1).
Crawford was lights out on the
mound for the Ravens on the way to the win (7-2). He allowed just
three hits in his fourth shutout of the season, as well as his
fifth complete game. He did not issue a walk, hit a batter, struck
out eight and faced only five batters over the minimum.
The Ravens opened the scoring with
a run in the bottom of the first inning. Senior second baseman
Dan
Hennigan (Downingtown, Pa.) opened the frame with a
single through the right side, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt,
moved to third on a flyout and scored while sophomore first baseman
Zach Mathieu
(Derry, N.H.) reached on an error.
Franklin Pierce tacked on another
run in the bottom of the second to double the lead to 2-0. With one
out, senior designated hitter Isaac Wenrich
(Westlawn, Pa.) knocked a single back up the middle and
stole second. Later, with two outs, he rounded third hard as
sophomore left fielder Calvin Graves
(Boston, Mass.) hit a groundball to shortstop. Wenrich
would score as Saint Anselm sophomore shortstop Tito Lluberes
committed a throwing error.
The Ravens picked up a third run in
the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead again to create the 3-0
final. Junior right fielder Nick LaCroix
(Grafton, Mass.) led off with a single to left-center,
moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, went to third on a wild pitch
and scored on a RBI groundball by Wenrich, who reached on an
error.
Healy also tossed a complete game
and suffered the hard-luck loss (8-2) for Saint Anselm. He allowed
three runs (but just one earned) on seven hits, did not issue a
walk, hit a batter and struck out seven.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin
Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be
sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics'
official Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel
(http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed
(http://twitter.com/FPUathletics).
