Baseball falls to Salem State in MASCAC twinbill

Courtesy of Salem State Sports Information

Salem, Mass. – Salem State took a pair of games from MCLA by identical 11-1 scores on Sunday afternoon at the Central Campus Baseball Field. The Vikings, who were the visiting team, as the game was moved from MCLA, improve to 11-9 and 3-1 in the MASCAC. MCLA drops to 5-9 (1-3 in the conference).

Richie Sharp (Townsend, MA) gets a complete game win for the Vikings to improve to 4-0 on the season in game one, while  Will Twiss (Middleton, MA) went the distance for the Vikings in game two as he gave up one run off four hits in a 11-1 victory over the Trailblazers.  

Game 1

Dan Connors (Danvers, MA), who went 2-for-3 with three RBI, singled in Alex Toomey (Beverly, MA) with the first run of the game. Joe DiMassimo (Dalton, MA) tied the score with a base hit in the bottom of the inning. That is all the Trailblazers would get as Sharp scattered seven hits, finishing with two strikeouts as he shut out MCLA the rest of the way.   

Salem State took a 4-1 lead in the second, plating a run on a Zac Duval single (Middleton, MA) and a two-run error by the second baseman.

MCLA replaced starter Brenden Kelly (Averill Park (N.Y.) with Sam Haaf (New Lebanon, N.Y.) in the latter half of the fifth. Kelly went five innings, giving up 10 runs (10 earned), 12 hits and two walks with a strikeout.

Game 2

Salem State's hot bats continued from game one into game two as they put up four runs in the first inning against the Trailblazers. Alex Toomey (Beverly, MA) jumped on the first pitch of the game from Joe Murray (Cairo, NY) as the right fielder drove the ball over the center fielder's head for the stand-up double. 

Murray struggled in the opening inning as he hit Andrew Deloury (Peabody, MA) in the next at bat and surrendered a single to Joe White (Bellingham, MA). That series set up clean up hit Dan Connors (Danvers, MA) to knock in Toomey with a groundball to the opposite side of the infield that was enough to score the run. Murray followed up with two consecutive walks to Salem State which resulted in the Vikings earning their second run of the inning with Murray's short comings on the mound. After a pass ball that scored Connors, Brendan Greene (Winchester, MA) drove in the fourth run of the inning with a sac fly to centerfield that brought in Joe Kasper (Lynn, MA).   

MCLA was able to gain a run back in the next half inning on a sacrifice fly that allowed Joe Toledo (Brooklyn, NY) to score off the bat of Joe DiMassimo (Dalton, MA). However, the Vikings' offense was too much for the Trailblazers arms to contain as Salem State added three more runs in the top of the third. Tyler Galimi (Northbridge, MA) knocked in two runs with a triple to the right field corner that brought in Kasper and Colton Fontaine (Newburyport, MA). Madoc Fisher brought in Salem State's seventh run in the next at bat with a double to center field that scored Galimi from third.

In the sixth, Salem State added to their large lead with the help of Greene and Fisher who drove in a run apiece with hard hit balls to left center field. Pat Fitzgerald (Auburn, MA) helped the Vikings jump out to a 10-1 lead by scoring from third on a passed ball.

The Vikings added on more run in the final inning when Fontaine drove in Joe Csokmay (Tewksbury, MA) who single earlier in the inning to put Salem State ahead with a healthy 10-run lead.

Twiss (2-0) was able to retire the side in the final inning as he pitched all seven innings where he allowed one run off four hits. The four runs (two earned) off two hits was enough for Murray (0-2) to draw the loss despite pitching only one inning. Brody Farnum (Bennington, VT) went four innings for the Trailblazers where he allowed three runs off five hits.

Fontaine, Fisher, Galimi, and Greene combined for eight runs batted in and eight hits for the Vikings in their game two victory