EAST BOSTON – A three-run, seventh-inning by Western New England put Suffolk baseball in a two-run hole it could not climb out of, which handed the Rams a 5-3 Conference of New England setback in the nightcap of a double feature Sunday at East Boston Memorial Park.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 3 | Western New England 5
RECORDS: Suffolk (12-21, 5-8 CNE) | Western New England (20-14, 7-6 CNE)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
WNE got on the scoreboard first with a two-out rally in the first. Ryan Moniti doubled to left and used Jack Loftus' single up the middle to give the Golden Bears a 1-0 edge.  

It took five innings for the Rams to right the wrong, but they did in the bottom of the fifth. Singles by Cole Hilliard and Colin Flynn sandwiched a hit by pitch by Max Martin to put all the ducks in the pond for the blue-and-gold. Max Iorioput the ball into play on the left side of the infield. Flynn reached second safely on the fielder's choice that allowed Hilliard to score the tying run.  Chris Cimino's bat came up big as he sent the ball high into left field. Max Martin tagged up and came in to push the blue-and-gold ahead, 2-1. 

The teams exchanged runs in the sixth to keep Suffolk up one.

The Golden Bears used a sac fly by Connor Cowern to level things at 2-all. He scored Moniti, who was hit by a pitch to get the inning underway and worked his way to third behind Loftus single to center and ground out to short by Corey Kilroy. 

It was a case of déjà vu on Suffolk's turn at the dish as Armbruster was hit with a pitch to get the home half of the frame underway. Mullaney bunted him over before a ground out to short by Hilliard put Armbruster in the prime scoring spot. Max Martin managed to muster a base hit to right that allowed Armbruster to score and regain the advantage for the host. 

See-saw action carried into the top of the seventh as Western New England put up three runs on four hits and one walk to put the Rams in a 5-3 hole.

Down two, Suffolk was unable to get its offense going again as it was limited to just one base runner over the next three innings to suffer the nightcap setback. 

PITCHERES PICTURE

• TJ Dimitriou took the loss as he gave up five runs on 10 hits and one walk with five strikeouts over 6.1 innings. 
• Jack Raimo allowed two hits in 2.2 innings of relief. 
• Matt Lauria picked up the win with a three-run, eight-hit, one-walk, four-strikeout performance over 7.2 innings. 
• Troy Donohue saved the victory for the Golden Bears with 1.1-inning of scoreless relief. He let up one walk and sat down one batter.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Armbruster went 2-for-3 with one run. 
• Max Martin tallied one hit, one RBI and one run. 
• Iorio added one hit and one RBI. 
• Cimino chipped in one RBI on a sac fly and one walk. 
• Flynn added two hits. 
• Alex Sorenti-Burns tallied one hit and one walk. 
• Hilliard had one hit and one run. 
• Mullaney put down one bunt.  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk heads to Gordon Tuesday, April 29 for a 3:00 p.m. CNE clash.