The Suffolk University Baseball team picked up their fourth straight victory behind the arm of junior southpaw Steve Chamberland (Bristol, Conn.). Suffolk improved to a 4-1 start to the 2013 season with a 7-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon over FDU-Florham.
Chamberland pitched into the eighth inning, striking out eight hitters and allowed one unearned run on five hits.
Senior Mike Cunningham (Syosset, N.Y.) finished the day 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI to lead a 15-hit offensive Suffolk attack.
Neither team would score through the first five and a half innings of play as FDU-Florham left nine runners on base through their first six at-bats.
Consecutive hit by pitches to junior Mac Jacobson (Norfolk, Mass.) and junior Jake Cintolo (Wrentham, Mass.) would start things for the Rams. Cunningham then laid down a sacrifice bunt that was misplayed and an errant throw down the right field line would plate Jacobson for the first run of the game. Two pitches later Suffolk would score two runs on a wild pitch to the backstop as Cunningham first came across the plate and then senior Chris Stanley (Placentia, Calif.) sprinted home on an overthrow as the pitcher came across to cover home. Junior Mike Muse (Milton, Mass.) would cap the inning off with a two-out bloop single to left to plate senior Jhonneris Mendez (Boston, Mass.) as Suffolk jumped out to a 4-0 lead through six innings.
The Rams would tack on two more in the seventh inning as Cintolo and Cunningam led the inning off with back to back doubles before a triple to the right center gap off the bat of Stanley would build the Suffolk lead to six runs.
Cunningham would add an RBI single in the eighth.
FDU-Florham scored their lone run in the top of the eighth with two outs as junior Kyle Herron (Edison, N.J.) singled to right chasing Chamberland from the game.
Sophomore Cal Caroll (Methuen, Mass.) pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the Rams as he escaped a jam in the eighth as FDU-Florham had runners on the corners with two outs.
Five Suffolk players recorded multiple hits on the day, highlighted by Cunningham's three. Cintolo, Stanley, Muse and junior Devan Jones (Roslindale, Mass.) each had a pair.
The loss drops FDU-Florham to a 3-5 mark on the year.
Suffolk will be back in action on Thursday afternoon as they play the College of New Jersey at 1:00pm at Southeastern University.