Auburndale, Fla. - The Trinity College Bantams baseball team
took advantage of a seven-run fifth for a 10-4 victory and a
nine-run first for a 13-11 win in a doubleheader sweep over the
University of Massachusetts-Boston Beacons today at Myrtle Lake
Park in the RussMatt Invitational. The Beacons fall to 0-4 on
the season, while the defending NCAA Champion Bantams open their
season at 2-0.
Trailing, 2-1, in the top of the fifth inning, Trinity junior OF
Matt Sullivan (North Reading, Mass.) cracked
a double, senior co-captain C Sean Killeen (Greenfield,
Mass.) drew a walk, and junior 1B Kent Graham
(Longmeadow, Mass.) tied the game with an run-scoring
double to left. Junior OF James Wood (Windham,
N.H.) worked a walk to load the bases and set up
a booming grand slam homer to left field off the bat of senior
co-captain 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland,
Maine) to give the Bantams a 6-2
advantage. Trinity scored twice more in the inning
and tacked on two more runs in the sixth when Killeen drew a
leadoff walk and trotted home on a home run to left by Graham for a
10-2 lead.
Junior righty Jeremiah Bayer (Greenfield,
Mass.) earned the victory for Trinity, allowing four
runs (two earned) on eight hits and a pair of walks through six
innings, while striking out six. Sophomore lefty
Andrew LeBrun (Stoneham, Mass.) suffered the loss
for the Beacons, yielding eight runs on nine hits and four walks to
go with a pair of strikeouts in four and two-thirds innings of
work.
Mass Boston opened the scoring in game two on a run-scoring
ground out from sophomore right fielder Tim Fontaine
(Worcester, Mass.), but the Bantams put up nine runs in
the bottom of the frame, keyed by Killeen with a run-scoring single
and a two-run triple in the inning. Wood crushed a two-run
triple and juniors Jack Abbott (Longmeadow,
Mass.) and Stephan
Bernstorf (Cockeysville, Md.) each contributed with
RBI singles. Trinity scored four more times in the third to
take a 13-1 advantage, but the Beacons battled back with
a pair of runs in the fifth on a two-run double by Fontaine and an
eight-run explosion in the sixth inning to pull to within
13-11 of the defending champs. Junior Jason Simoni
(Old Saybrook, Conn.) preserved the win with a scoreless
ninth, despite loading the bases for Trinity.
Freshman James Ramsey (Belmont,
Mass.) picked up the win for Trinity, going five
innings and allowing three runs on three hits and five walks, while
fanning four, while junior southpaw Alex Simas (Wareham,
Mass.) was saddled with the loss for Mass,-Boston after
giving up 13 runs (seven earned) on 11 hits and three walks in two
and a third innings pitched to go with two strikeouts.
Killeen and Piacentini each collected three hits and knocked in
four runs for the Bantams.
Game 1 box
score
Game 2 box
score
