EAST BOSTON – Ryan Pordes was nearly perfect on the hill to anchor the Suffolk baseball team in a 5-0 GNAC victory over Johnson & Wales Saturday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 5, Johnson & Wales 0
RECORDS: Suffolk (10-14, 4-0 GNAC) | Johnson & Wales (15-9, 4 -1 GNAC)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Pordes had a perfect game going until the fifth frame until Edison Mercado found the gap between third and short for a base hit. The Rams defense turned a 463 double to keep it a three-up, three-down inning.  

The Wildcats offense had another base runner in the next inning on a hit-by-pitch, but once against Suffolk's defense backed up the Rams' RHP. In the final frame, JWU had its final chance to erase the shutout as Mercado struck for a single for the second time on the day, but the hit came too little too late.  

Suffolk's offense got going at its first at bat of the day as Brady Chant rocked a triple to right field. Trevor Lee brought the Ram in with a single to the same spot.  

In the fourth, Blasé Cormier recorded a triple and scored Trevor Lee and Seth Coiley, who each singled, in the process, to lengthen the Rams edge to three.  

Two innings later, Suffolk another pair of runs for the five-run margin. Lee started things off with a single to right, moved over on a sac bunt by Coiley and stole third to set up Greg Speliotis RBI single up the middle. Nik San Antoniotook Speliotis spot on the bases, advanced to second on a passed ball and ran in on Will Hopkins base hit to center.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Pordes faced just 23 hitters through the full seven innings with the senior allowing just two hits and sitting down five.
• Keith Grant was handed his first loss of the season after he gave up five runs on eight hits and two walks.  In 6.0 innings, the Wildcats starter fanned five batters.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Lee recorded a hit in each of his three plate appearances. The junior second baseman scored twice and scored one run. 
• Cormier's only hit on the afternoon went for three bases and two RBI. 
• Chant and Coiley had identical stat lines of 1-for-2 with one run apiece. Chant's lone hit was good for three bases. 
• Hopkins and Speliotis each went 1-for-3 at the dish with one RBI apiece.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk won its fourth straight game against JWU to improve to 36-17 all-time versus the Wildcats. 
• The Rams shutout the Wildcats for the second straight game, after blanking JWU, 1-0, in the 2017 GNAC Championship contest. 
• Pordes recorded his first complete-game shutout of the season and second of his career. 
• Lee contributed a career-high three hits.  

POST-GAME
  

COMING UP
Suffolk caps off the two-game series with the Wildcats under the lights in Eastie.