St. Joseph's 12 Suffolk 4 - Box Score

Suffolk 7, Johnson & Wales 4 - Box Score

The Suffolk University Baseball team (21-14 overall) advanced to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship behind a stellar performance on the mound by freshman Matt Sliney (Brockton, Mass.) in Saturday evening’s elimination game. Sliney went eight innings for his first collegiate victory as the Rams defeated host Johnson & Wales University, 7-4. Unfortunately for the top-seeded Rams they dropped their first game of the day to St. Joseph’s College (Me.) 12-4 and will need to beat the Monks twice on Sunday in hopes of earning consecutive bids to the NCAA Tournament.

Suffolk jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the second as junior Nick Travelyn (Bedford, N.H.) lined a two-strike breaking ball into left field plating junior Andrew Babb (Ashland, Mass.) for the game’s first run. The Rams would add another run in the fourth as freshman Chris Stanley (Orange County, Calif.) singled with two-outs and the bases loaded for his second of three hits in the contest.

Johnson & Wales would add a run in the home half of the fourth as they took advantage of a bases loaded walk to Joe Coppolla to make the score 3-1.

Junior Mark Annese (Winchester, Mass.) answered in the next half inning with an RBI single. Suffolk would add another run in the sixth on attentive baserunning. Senior Rory Gentile (Gloucester, Mass.) led the inning off with a bloop single to left and then stole second base. After retiring the next two Rams hitters, the Wildcats decided to intentionally walk left-handed hitting Marc Doyle (Whitman, Mass.). Gentile instinctively picked up on not being paid attention to and swiped third base and would come around to score in the inning on an infield error with two outs.

Suffolk would add two more runs in the seventh as Travelyn and Gentile drew back to back walks to lead off the inning. After a groundout advanced both runners to scoring position, the Wildcats decided to pitch to senior Bobby Barrett (Milton, Mass.) with one down and a base open. Barrett would make Johnson & Wales pay singling up the middle on the first pitch he saw to make it 6-1 to Suffolk.

Bryan Sayers (Chelmsford, Mass.) would drive in a pair of runs with a single to right in the eighth for the Wildcats and Teddy Katz Jr. (Pittsburgh, Penn.) would score on a wild pitch as Johnson & Wales managed to cut the deficit to 6-4.

Stanley would give the Rams some insurance however in the ninth picking up his second RBI of the day with a single to right plating Travelyn. Stanely finished game two 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI.

Freshman Jhonneris Mendez (Roslindale, Mass.) pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save of the tournament and fourth of the season recording two strikeouts.

Sliney battled for the Rams going eight innings, allowing nine hits and four earned runs, but gave the Rams a big boost logging innings and working out of trouble all day.

Things did not go so smoothly in their first game of the day as St. Joe’s took advantage of some poor defensive play by the Rams, who committed three errors, which accounted for five unearned runs in the game.

GNAC Pitcher of the Year Sam Murray quieted the Rams bats down after a shaky first inning going the distance for his sixth victory of the year, while Ben Grant-Roy was 3-for-4 with five RBI, including a double and a triple.

Tomorrow’s championship game will begin at noon at Pierce Memorial Field in East Providence, R.I.. If the Suffolk is victorious a winner take all game will follow twenty minutes after the completion  of game one.