Desantis, Gibbons and Burtman lead Trailblazers to Senior Day Victory

North Adams, MA - Steve Desantis (Springfield, MA) waited a long time for today to come and the senior backup catcher took advantage of his opportunity. Desantis was in the lineup batting second as the designated hitter and looking for his first collegiate hit. Desantis and the Trailblazers wasted no time getting the bats going.  MCLA (20-13) scored six runs in the first three innings with the seniors in the lineup doing the bulk of the damage. In the first with John Ripepi (Amsterdam, NY) on the move, Desantis took the first pitch he saw and ripped it up the middle for his first hit and just as important moved Ripepi over to the third. Four batters later Desantis scored on a Ken Recore (Averill Park, NY) sacrifice fly making it 2-1 at the end of one.

In the 2^nd with another senior Anthony Russo (Marcy, NY) on 2^nd and Ripepi on 1^st, Derek Gibbons (Rochester, MA) blasted a three-run homer off Springfield (9-24) starter Chris Collard (Coventry, RI), putting the Trailblazers in control 5-1.

MCLA starter Daniel Gaines (Holyoke, MA) was pitching in and out of trouble, but hadn't allowed an earned run or hit through four innings. In the fifth, the Pride caught up to him scoring five runs on five hits and a walk. The two big blows being a Jamie Mackie (Springfield, MA) bases clearing double and then a Travis Turgeon (Norwich, CT) two-run homer tying the game at 6-6. Gaines departed with one out and a man on, but MCLA reliever Duncan McDonald (Hartford, VT) came in to settle things down. McDonald, in fact allowed only one hit in the next two and two-thirds innings to pick up his 1^st victory of the year.

 MCLA answered the Springfield fifth with six runs of their own putting the game out of reach. MCLA scored four more in the bottom of the 7^th making the final 16-6.

Senior Cory Burtman (Norwood, MA) added three hits of his own including a key double to right-center in the fifth. Gibbons had three hits and senior Steve Sullivan (Wareham, MA) added two hits, as did Russo. Senior Matt Burke (Middleboro, MA) had two runs scored and two RBI's, while fellow senior Pat Negrini (West Stockbridge, MA) had a hit, a walk and run scored.  Every Trailblazer who had an at bat got at least one hit as the Trailblazers pounded out eighteen hits.

Collard didn't pitch badly and only two of the six runs he surrendered were earned as he was the victim of three Springfield errors. Brian Harris (East Hartford, CT) took the loss in relief.

Springfield will host Amherst College on Wednesday at 3:30pm; MCLA will travel to Bridgewater on Thursday April 30^th for the 1^st round of the MASCAC Conference Tournament starting at 3:00pm.