EAST BOSTON – Suffolk baseball escaped its Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opener with a win as the Rams forced the Bison to stranded the bases loaded in the top of the ninth to take a 3-2 victory over Nichols Sunday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 3 | Nichols 2
RECORDS: Suffolk (5-5, 1-0 CCC) | Nichols (1-12, 0-1 CCC) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk started the scoring in the second inning. Marc Birbiglia led off with a single to left field and Luke Hardertripled to the opposite outfield to bring in the first run of the day. Harder used Timothy McCarthy's base hit to left to come in and give the host a 2-0 edge early.  

Three innings later the Rams had a chance to lengthen the lead as they loaded the bases on a Max Iorio single and walks from Garret Roberts and Harry Painter. With one out, Nichols made a change on the hill as Richard Pignone came in to take over for Aidan Whitten. Birbiglia made contact but hit into a 643 double play that kept it a two-run game.  

Insurance ended up coming for the blue-and-gold in the bottom of the sixth. Harder and McCarthy barreled back-to-back base hits. Sacrifices came into play for the Rams. First, Michael Cole bunted the runners over and Michael James Jr. picked up an RBI on a sac fly to right to push the gap to three with six innings in the books.  

Nichols eliminated the shutout in the top of the seventh. An overthrow by Gilbride on a routine ground out to first allowed Brad Ellis to reach first safely. The Bison's first baseman swiped second when Kelvin Gutierrez struck out, looking. Ellis moved into scoring position in time for Johnny Knox's single to center that plated Ellis to put the visitors on the board.  

Suffolk had a chance to pad its advantage in the home half of the seventh but stranded a pair of runners instead to keep the score still at 3-1 Rams. 

Rams' relievers, Shawn Nosky and Gilbride came in to lock up the conference-opening victory. In the eighth, Nosky had a hitless inning with one base one balls. Things were more interesting an inning later as Gilbride got in a bases loaded, two-out jam. The positional pitcher hit a batter with the based chucked to let the Bison pull within one. Painter assisted Gilbride for the final out as he scooped up the ball when Jim Marasco put it into play, stepped on third for the force out and end the game.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Roberts registered the win with a one-run, unearned, four-hit, four-walk, two-strikeout, 7.0-inning outing. 
• Nosky put together a scoreless, hitless inning of relief with one walk and one punchout. 
• Gilbride earned the save behind his 1.0 inning of work. He allowed one run on one hit and two walks. 
• Aidan Whitten suffered the setback after giving up two runs on six hits and four walks with four punchouts in 4.1 frames of action. 
• Pignone tossed 2.1 innings of relief and gave up one run on three hits with one strikeout. 
• Brandon Metivier (1 BB, 2 K) and Patrick Sawyer (1 K) each tossed 0.2 innings out of the pen. 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Harder had a 2-for-4 day with one triple, one RBI and scored twice. 
• McCarthy put together a 2-for-3 effort at the dish with one RBI.
• Birbiglia tallied one run, one hit and one walk.  
• Painter produced one hit, one walk and one stolen base. 
• Gilbride, who stole one base, Iorio and Roberts recorded one hit apiece. 
• James brought in one run on a sac fly. 

NOTEWORTHY

• The Rams started their CCC calendar in the win column for the first time. 
• Suffolk moved to 1-2 in CCC debuts all-time. 
• Suffolk opened its CCC campaign at home for the first time. 
• The Rams started their league schedule at home for the first time since 2019. 
• Suffolk is now 6-2 in its first league outing in the Anthony Del Prete era. 
• Overall, Suffolk is 19-4 in its first conference contest of the year (18-2 GNAC / 1-2 CCC). 
• Suffolk moved to 19-20 all-time against Nichols. 
• The Rams snapped a three-game skid versus the Bison. 
• Suffolk is now 2-2 versus Nichols under Del Prete's guidance.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk closes its CCC double feature with the Bison this afternoon.