The Suffolk University Baseball team won the 2014 ECAC Division-III New England Championship defeating host and top-seed Roger Williams University 8-1 on Sunday afternoon.
Freshman Matt Brenner (Eliot, Me.) was named as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player as he was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI in Sunday's victory. Brenner finished the three game tournament hitting .538 (7-for-13) with five RBI, two doubles and three runs scored.
Senior Devan Jones (Roslindale, Mass.) set a career marker on Sunday as he became just the fourth player in Suffolk program history to record 200 career hits. Jones reached the mark in the fourth inning as he singled up the middle. He would later add a double as part of a 2-for-5 day with a pair of runs scored.
Roger Williams scored the game's first run in the second when junior Chris Travers (East Freetown, Mass.) doubled to center to lead the inning off. He would come around to score as junior Reid Nelson (Wallingford, Conn.) hit a sharp ground ball down the first base line to plate the game's first run.
Suffolk would even the game in the third as Brenner knocked home their first run with two outs on a base hit to right that scored sophomore Rob Marks (Revere, Mass.) who led the inning off with a single of his own.
In the fourth, Suffolk would score four times taking advantage of a pair of Hawks' miscues to break things open. Junior JC Collette (Amesbury, Mass.) would lead the inning off with a base on balls, before Jones delivered his base hit to set the table. Sophomore Jon Lapolla (Providence, R.I.) would then lay down a sacrifice bunt back to the mound but the throw sailed passed the first base bag bringing Collette around to score. Senior Mike Muse (Milton, Mass.) would then lift a sacrifice fly to right before junior Justin Knight (Hackettstown, N.J.) drove in another run with a base hit. After an infield error kept the inning alive, senior Jake Cintolo (Wrentham, Mass.) would draw a hit by pitch with the bases loaded to make it a 5-1 game.
Marks would tack on an insurance run in the fifth inning with an RBI base hit. He finished the day going 2-for-3 at the plate while also scoring a pair of runs.
Suffolk would tack on two more runs in the eighth as Brenner hit his second RBI single of the afternoon and Cintolo collected his second run batted in with a fielder's choice later in the inning.
Senior Mike Thomas (Plainville, Conn.) was the lone Hawks' player to put together a multi-hit day. He was 2-for-4 with a double in the fifth.
Freshman Tim Conroy (Arlington, Mass.) went the first seven innings on the mound for Suffolk as he improves his season record to 4-3 on the year. Conroy scattered seven hits and allowed just the one run in his outing while striking out three.
Senior Jhonneris Mendez (Boston, Mass.) closed out the Suffolk victory for the second day in a row. Mendez pitched two scoreless innings while striking out a pair.
Four players helped combine for an 11 hit attack on the day for Suffolk. Brenner, Jones, Marks and Knight all recorded two hits each. Knight also recorded two walks on the afternoon as he reached basely in four of five plate appearances.
Suffolk was also aided by their defense in the victory as they spun three double plays in the infield on the afternoon.
The ECAC Championship is just the second in program history for Suffolk. They last won the tournament championship in 2000 beating Tufts University, 12-3. It was the twelfth time Suffolk has made an appearance in an ECAC Tournament.
The win improves Suffolk to a 26-14-1 overall record on the season. After starting the year 0-5, Suffolk turned things around which included a 10-game winning streak midway through the year. They finished with the best regular season conference record at 12-2 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play while also reaching the 20-win plateau for the 17th straight season. Suffolk advanced to the GNAC Championship game for the eighth consecutive year before falling to St. Joseph's College 2-0. Suffolk finished their regular season winning six of their last seven games, including three straight to take the ECAC Tournament.