EAST BOSTON – Every Ram who made a plate appearance provided at least one hit and Michael Muscarella had a stand-up day on the hill to power Suffolk baseball to a 15-2 victory over Lasell Sunday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 15 | Lasell 2
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-1) | Lasell (1-3)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk's bats were hot and heavy early on as the Rams forced Lasell to cycle through three arms in the first two innings. Over those outings, the blue-and-gold put up nine runs.
Marc Birbiglia led off the outing with a double to left center. The center fielder worked his way around the bags behind a wild pitch and took advantage of a fielder's choice to open the scoring. Shane Lake's single through the right side plated Blase Cormier, who walked, and the Lasers made their first change on the hill. The new arm gave up an RBI single to Christian Seariac that scored Desimone to put Suffolk up three.
In the Rams next turn at the dish, they ran through the order to extend their lead to 9-0. Birbiglia's second double of the day brought in Zack Aresty, who started the stanza with a single through the left side. Two outs and a pitching change later, Desimone drew a bases loaded walk to keep the inning alive. Doubles from Lake and Seariac scored two and one run, respectively, for the nine-run margin.
Lasell eliminated the shutout in the bottom half of the third. An error by Desimone allowed the second Lasers batter of the frame reach. He worked his way around the bags on a walk and a routine ground out before scoring on Matt Bischof's single to third.
Zeros were put up on both sides in the fourth. More scoring came in fifth though. A new pitcher for Lasell was no match for the Rams. Aresty led off with a triple and came in thanks to Joe Rufo's sacrifice. From there, Birbiglia, who reached on an error, came in when Rich Gilbride barreled a double down the left field line. Cormier hit the ball in nearly the same spot to score Gilbride and push Suffolk's cushion to 11, 12-1.
Chris Paulino responded for the Lasers with a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth.
Suffolk struck a homer of its own in the top of the seventh. Michael James Jr. sent a no doubter over the left field fence and brought in Rufo in the process, who took advantage of a Lasell mishap to open the inning. The final run of the day came behind Brigham's double to left center that scored Giblride, who singled, to make it a 15-2 lopsided game.
PITCHERS PICTURE
- Muscarella secured the decision behind a two-run (one earned), four-hit, two-walk, 10-strikeout outing in 6.0 innings.
- Casey Sullivan shoved a scoreless final frame with one punchout.
- Lasell shuffled through fiver arms. Tyler perkins suffered the setback after giving up three runs on two hits and two walks in 0.2 innings of work.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Birbiglia went 2-for-3 at the dish with both of his hits good for two bags. He scored three times and brought in one run.
- Lake recorded four RBI on two hits and scored one.
- Gilbride went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI.
- Searcia provided two hits and two RBI.
- Cormier contributed two runs, two walks, one hit and one RBI.
- Rufo scored twice to go along with one hit and one run.
- James produced two RBI on his lone hit, a homer.
NOTEWORTHY
- Birbiglia notched personal-bests in hits (2), doubles (2) and runs scored (3).
- James first collegiate hit was his first-ever homer that produced the first RBI of his career.
- Desimone tied a career-high two RBI and scored a personal-best two times.
- Aresty tallied his second collegiate triple.
- Seariac notched a Suffolk best two hits and two RBI.
- Muscarella sat down a career-high 10 batters.
- The 11 strikeouts are the most since Suffolk's staff sat down 11 hitters UMass Boston April 18, 2019.
- Muscarella's 10 punchouts are the most since Worth Walrod fanned 10 hitters in a complete-game, no-hit, 5-0 shutout over Anna Maria April 7, 2019.
POST-GAME PIC
SUFFOLK'S SCHEDULE
Suffolk and Lasell concludes the four-game series this afternoon.
