Baseball splits MASCAC twinbill with Westfield
Todd Hunt earned the game two victory tossing six innings as the Trailblazers held on for an 8-7 win over rival Westfield State
Westfield, MA- The MCLA baseball team rallied in game two and then held off the Westfield State Owls 8-7 to earn a split of this afternoon's twinbill. Westfield easily won the opener behind a solid pitching performance from Peter Cassidy. MCLA is now 9-8 overall and 2-4 in league play. The Owls are 15-5 and 3-3 in the conference.
In the opener, the Owls scored a pair of runs in the first inning on a two run homer off the bat of Danny DiMatteo. They would add three more tallies off MCLA starter Mike Mancivalano in the third inning. Jeremy Tanguay, Evan Moorhouse, and Dan McCormack all had RBI singles in the frame.
The rest was left Cassidy as he faced the minimum number of hitters through six innings. He would finish off the complete game masterpiece by allowing just two hits and striking out four. He didn't walk a batter on the day. Tanguay and Moorhouse had two hit for the Owls as they banged out 10 hits compared to just the two for MCLA.
Mancivalano took the loss to fall to 1-1 on the season. Eamonn Andre threw three scoreless innings for MCLA.
In the nightcap, the Owls once again jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after three innings of play. MCLA would take advantage of some Westfield miscues in the fourth inning as they exploded for 8 unearned runs in the frame.
Ryan Shook and Alon Willing drove in runs to start the frame and Myles Candelet walked with the bases full to tie the game. Mike Sullivan's RBI single gave MCLA the lead and two more runs came around on an infield error. Rory Slattery closed out the inning with a two run double to left field.
Westfield answered with a single run in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth, however Hunt never gave up the lead. He ended his day with a strikeout of Connor Sheridan with the tying run in scoring position.
Liam Nolan entered in the seventh and worked a perfect inning to earn the save for Hunt. Hunt would work around 9 hits in earning the win.
Peter Liimatainen was tabbed with the loss.
MCLA is back in action tomorrow when they travel to Southern Vermont.