KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Suffolk baseball overcame an early five-run deficit but could not complete the comeback as Westfield State secured the 8-5 decision in the ninth Monday afternoon at Osceola Heritage Park Stadium at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 5 | Westfield State 8
RECORDS: Suffolk (3-3) | Westfield State (3-1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the Atlanta Braves A-Ball affiliate's Florida Fire Frogs stadium and was the former spring training home of the Houston Astros, that scraped 90 degrees Suffolk felt the heat early as the Owls put the Rams in a two-run hole. Anthony Crowley's base hit scored Casey Boudreau from second. One hitter later, Nick Martin swiped third, then a few pitches later Crowley was caught off the first base, but managed to evade the rundown long enough to allow Martin to waltz home.
Two innings later, Westfield State stretched its advantage to five behind a two-run double from Dunn and a RBI single from Aaron Clancy.
Suffolk began to make up ground in the home half of the third was a RBI single from Rich Giandrea that scored Trevor Lee, who reached on a single of his own.
An inning later, the Rams made it a one-run ball game. After Logan Heckman barreled his first collegiate hit, a deep double to left, to push Shane Lake to third, Rich Gilbride's sac fly to center brought Lake in and put the blue-and-gold on the board. Suffolk's scoring continued thanks to a RBI single from Lee and a one-run double from Blase Cormier, which cut the Owls' lead to 5-4.
The score hit a standstill from there as Michael Muscarella came out of the pen for Suffolk and kept the Owls offense quiet until getting in a bases loaded, two-out jam in the top of the eighth. Worth Walrod took over for Muscarella and the Rams turned a 643 double play to keep the one-run game intact.
Suffolk stranded the tying run in the eighth and Walrod found himself in his own jam in the ninth. With the bags chucked, the southpaw walked in one run before Colin Dunn brought one in with a base hit to right. An out and two batters later, a bobble by Gilbride let the Owls' third-run of the frame cross home plate and the Rams found themselves down, 8-4, when the game transitioned to the bottom of the ninth.
With runners on first and second Tim Brigham started a Rams rally with a one-run double to left center. Suffolk was held there though as Troy Saulnier fanned the final two blue-and-gold bats to secure the victory for WSU.
PITCHERS PICTURE
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Muscarella was the standout arm for Suffolk. The freshman put together 4.1 innings of scoreless relief with three hits and one walk allowed with all four of Suffolk's strikeouts appearing on his stat line.
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Tyler Zell suffered the setback after giving up five runs, all earned, on six hits and two walks.
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Walrod let in three runs, one earned, on three walks and two hits over 1.1 innings.
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EJ Birch also came out of the bullpen for the Rams.
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Westfield State also had a staff day on the bump.
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Trevor Edwards earned the win in relief of Westfield's starter Patrick Jordan with two innings of scoreless relief.
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Scott Strachan added two scoreless frames to get the Owls to the ninth, where Saulnier worked through trouble, allowing one run, but put together back-to-back Ks to preserve the win.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
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A trio of batters had multi-hit outings for Suffolk in Cormier, Lee and Heckman.
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Lee truly led the way with two hits, two runs, one RBI and one walk.
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Cormier registered a pair of hits, including one double, for one RBI.
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Heckman knocked a single and double, respectively, scored one run and swiped one bag.
NOTEWORTHY
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Heckman registered his multiple firsts on the day in hits, extra-base hits and stolen base.
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Muscarella served the outings on the mound in his collegiate career thus far (4.1) and collected a personal-best four punchouts.
POST-GAME PIC
COMING UP
Suffolk takes tomorrow off and will be back in action Wednesday, March 12 when it faces RIT in a nine-inning battle at Osceola Heritage Park.
