Baseball Rallies for Walk off Win in Opener Against Salem but Comeback Fall Shorts in Game Two
Framingham, Mass. – The Framingham State University baseball team rallied from a run down in the bottom of the seventh for a 7-6 walk off victory in game one of a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) baseball doubleheader with Salem State University, but the Vikings rebounded to win the second game 4-3 and salvage a split at Bowditch Field.
With the split, the Rams are now 22-13 overall and 9-3 in the MASCAC which places them in a tie for second place with Westfield State. The Vikings improve to 27-9-1 on the year and 8-4 in the MASCAC.
The Rams jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Vikings in their first at bat of the day on back-to-back homeruns from senior Pedro Acevedo (Fall River, Mass.) and junior Justin Forman (Watertown, Mass.). Acevedo drove in a pair with his third homerun of the season, while Forman's was a solo shot.
The Vikings tied the game with three unearned runs in the top of the second as they took advantage of a pair of Framingham errors. Sophomore Ryan Beliveau (Lynn, Mass.) plated a run on a sacrifice fly, classmate Ethan Trowt (Beverly, Mass.) scored one on an RBI single and junior Steve Buitkus (Reading, Mass.) plated the final run of the inning on a double.
A solo homerun from Salem sophomore Brett Cahill (Gloucester, Mass.) put the Vikings in the lead in the top of the fifth, but the Rams answered with a pair of run in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles from freshman Cam Couillard (North Andover, Mass.) and senior Will Crofton (Hopkinton, Mass.) to go back in front 5-4.
Salem State took advantage of Framingham's third error of the game in the sixth inning to tie the score with another unearned run. Junior Bill Cataldo (Reading, Mass.) reached on the error and came around to score on an RBI single from Buitkus.
A solo homerun by Cahill, his second of the game, in the top of the seventh put the Vikings ahead by one (6-5) setting up the Rams seventh inning comeback. Freshman Mark Mainini (Hull, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and scored a batter later on Chris Blydell's (Lynn, Mass.) double. Couillard followed reaching on an error giving the Rams runners on second and third and no outs. Crofton delivered a base hit scoring Blydell for the one run walk off victory.
Senior Ryan Stoller (Milton, Mass.) picked up the victory tossing an inning of scoreless relief, while freshman Ryan Bowen (Hudson, Mass.) started on the hill and went five innings allowing four runs, one earned, on six hits with four strikeouts.
Crofton finished the game 2-for-2 with two RBI and a run scored, while Acevedo went 1-for-3 and drove in a pair.
Senior Mario Padovani (Lynnfield, Mass.) was tagged with the loss for the Vikings as he tossed 1-plus innings of relief and surrendered two earned runs on two hits.
Buitkus, junior Kevin Salines (Melrose, Mass.) and Cahill all had two hits in the game for the Vikings. Buitkus and Cahill each drove in a pair.
In game two, Salem took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a two-run homerun by sophomore Felix Zamot (Peabody, Mass.), but the Rams came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles from sophomore Tony Iafolla (Medfield, Mass.) and Mainini to tie the score.
Single runs in the third and fourth put the Vikings back on top 4-2. Cahill drove in his third run of the day in the third with an RBI single and senior Erik Juncker (Rockport, Mass.) drove in an insurance run in the fourth with his RBI basehit.
Sophomore starting pitcher Ryan Hyjek (Tolland, Conn.) kept the Rams off the board until the seventh inning as he allowed just three hits through the middle innings. In the seventh, the Rams were able to get something going as Blydell walked to lead off the inning and scored on a double by Couillard that drove Hyjek out of the game. Beliveau came on in relief and struck the next three Rams out stranding the tying run on second base.
Hyjek recorded the victory with his six innings of work in which he surrendered three runs, two earned, on seven hits with two walks and 10 strikeouts. Beliveau notched his first save of the season.
Sophomore Brendan Busa (Framingham, Mass.) was hit with the loss for the Rams going 3.1 innings and allowing four earned runs of five hits with four Ks. Senior Rob McLaughlin (Plymouth, Mass.) tossed 3.2 innings of scoreless relief allowing just three hits.
The Rams return to action on Wednesday afternoon at Rhode Island College at 3:30 p.m., while the Vikings host Daniel Webster on Thursday at 3 p.m.