MILTON, Mass. – Suffolk baseball started its Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) calendar with a 7-6, extra-inning setback to Curry as the Colonels came back, evened things up in the eighth and walked off with a sac fly in the 11th at Valley Diamond Saturday afternoon.   

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 6 | Curry 7
RECORDS: Suffolk (7-5, 0-1 CCC) | Curry (7-4, 1-0 CCC)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk chased one after the first frame as Jason Leonard sent a rocket out of the park in his first trip to the plate.  

The Rams made up ground with one run over the next two innings. In the second, Joe Ward singled to short and put on his running shoes when Marc Birbiglia barreled a double down the right field line to level the playing field at one apiece.  

An inning later, Garret Roberts rocked a one-out homer to push the Rams in front, 2-1. The Colonels caught up and then come with a four-run home half of the inning to put the blue-and-gold in a 5-2 hole. 

Things stayed that way until the top of the fifth. Jonny Gilbride led off and two batters later Joe Ward knocked a homer over the center field fence to trim the gap down to one. Birbiglia drew a walk and Harry Painter placed a base hit in right field, which forced Curry to change up its pitcher. Garrett Fosher did not have much composure out of the pen as an erratic pitch allowed the Rams runners to advance to second and third. That set up Blase Cormier's RBI single to right field that evened matters at 5-5.  

Suffolk grabbed its first lead of the day in the sixth. With one out Gilbride worked a base on balls, stole second and coasted home behind an error by the Colonels' first baseman Leonard when Christian Seariac put the ball into play. The unearned run pushed Suffolk in front by one.  

Curry caught up in the seventh when Caleb Piwnicki came in for reliever Casey Sullivan. The junior right-handed pitcher sat down the first batter he faced looking, but found himself in a sticky situation with the bases jammed after a walk, hit by pitch and base hit. A bases loaded wild pitch allowed the Colonels to equalize matters at 6-all.  

A shutdown eighth set up what would a thrilling end.  

Suffolk saw a chance as the first two Rams reached and made their way to third. Ward registered a walk and Birbiglia followed with a single before the pair moved over behind Ben Isaak's sac bunt. They were kept there though as the next two blue-and-gold batters were retired.  

Curry, meanwhile, saw its first batter, Ryan Goonan, get on with a single to short. He took second on a wild pitch, but was kept there as Roberts struck out the next two, intentionally walked Jared Keller before Cormier collected an unassisted ground out to send the game into extras.  

Déjà vu on both sides occurred in the 10th as Suffolk stranded runners on second and third, respectively, while Curry left one on second to send the clash into the 11th.  

The Colonels held the Rams in the top half of the inning and looked to change that pattern in their turn at the dish. Goonan led off with a long out to right before Leonard tripled down the right field line. Joan Peralta did a job and flew out to right, which allowed Leonard to coast in to lift Curry to victory.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Roberts suffered the setback. In 3.2 innings of relief, he. Let up one run on two hits and one walk with four strikeouts to his credit. 
• Suffolk starter Michael Muscarella gave up five runs on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts in 3.0 innings. 
• Sullivan served 3.0 innings of scoreless relief and compiled a two-hit, four-strikeout line. 
• Piwnicki came out of the pen for 1.0 frame in which he gave up one run on one hit and one walk with two Ks. 
• Colman Dyer, who came in in the 10th, earned the victory behind 2.0 innings of shutout relief with just one hit and one walk allowed and one punchout. 
• Zachary Wensley (4.1 IP, 5 R, 8 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks) opened the action for the Colonels, while Fosher (4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 Ks) came in in relief.   

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Ward registered a 2-for-4 effort at the plate with one homer. He notched two RBI and scored twice. 
• Birbiglia had a multi-hit day as well with two to his credit including one double to go along with one RBI and one run scored. 
• Gilbride scored twice and added one hit. 
• Roberts recorded a 2-for-3 effort at the plate with one dinger, homer RBI and one run scored. 
• Painter provided two hits.  
• Luke Harder, Isaak and Shane Lake all laid down a sac.

NOTEWORTHY

• The Rams went into extra innings for the first time since walking off against Ursinus, 2-1, in eight innings March 13, 2020. 
• Suffolk played its first extra-inning CCC contest. 
• The Rams have only started the CCC calendar on the road. 
• Suffolk sent two balls out of the park for the fifth time in 2022, first since March 18, 2022 versus Mt. Aloysius.
• Birbiglia pushed his hit streak to five games. In that span he has nine hits. 
• Painter has notched multiple hits in each of the last three games. He has eight hits over the last three outings. 
• Roberts recorded his second homer of the season. 
• Ward rocked a home run for the third time this year. 
• Ward drew a career-best two walks. 

POST-GAME PIC
  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk concludes its CCC doubleheader with the Colonels this afternoon.