EAST BOSTON – Suffolk baseball trailed early, came back, but could not hold off a ninth-inning rally by Roger Williams, who put up five unanswered runs to defeat the Rams, 9-5, in the opener of a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) double feature Saturday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 5 | Roger Williams 9
RECORS: Suffolk (10-7, 1-3 CCC) | Roger Williams (16-1, 3-0 CCC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk trailed 4-0 at the middle of the sixth as the Hawks scattered a run in the first, third, fifth and sixth.
The Rams made up ground in the home half of the sixth. With one out, a hit by pitch, single from Joe Ward and walk by Harry Painter put all the ducks in the pond. Threatened for the first time in the outing, Justin Garcia started to lose control a bit as he hit Marc Birbiglia to allow the blue-and-gold on the board. A catcher's interference followed by another hit by pitch brought the host within one before Jonny Gilbride worked a bases loaded base on balls to level the playing field at 4-all.
An inning later Painter pushed in oppose-taco out of the yard to give Suffolk its first edge of the outing, 5-4.
Things stayed that way until the ninth when Roger Williams put together a two-out, five-run rally to regain the advantage, 9-5. The offensive outburst came behind two hits, two Rams' errors a pair of walks and one passed ball.
Suffolk found itself with four runs to make up once again, however, this time it was in the bottom of the ninth. Singles by Gilbride and Christian Seariac started out the inning. From there Hawks' closer Adam Harz retired the finalize the conference contest.
PITCHERS PICTURE
- Garret Roberts suffered the setback after his 2.0 innings of relief although all five runs he let up were unearned. His stat line featured four hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
- EJ Birch opened the action and compiled a two-earned, five-hit, five-walk, five-punchout performance in 5.1 frames.
- Shreyas Parikh (0.2 IP) and Casey Sullivan (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 BB) came out of the pen for the blue-and-gold.
- Brett Lauterbach earned the decision behind 1.0 inning of scoreless, hitless relief.
- Garcia allowed two earned runs on three hits and two walks with 12 Ks over his 6.0 innings.
- Nick Harper (1 R, 1 H) and Harz (2 H, 1 K) tossed an inning of relief.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Painter provided a 2-for-3 plate performance with one double and one homer. He had two runs scored and one RBI.
- Ward chipped in two hits and one run.
- Gilbride tallied one hit and one RBI.
- Birbiglia notched one RBI and scored once.
- Luke Harder and Blase Cormier each brought in one run.
- Roberts scored one run.
NOTEWORTHY
- Painter produced a homer in a back-to-back for the third time this season.
- Painter now has seven home runs this year, the most by a Ram since Jake Frasca hit eight in 2016.
- Painter pushed his hit streak to eight games.
- Ward had his fourth straight game with multiple hits.
POST-GAME PIC
WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk concludes its CCC doubleheader with the Hawks this afternoon.
