Baseball Plates Three in First en route to 5-1 Victory over Elms

Holyoke, Mass. – Framingham State University plated three runs in the top of the first and freshman outfielder Jake Wardwell (Hudson, Mass.) was 4 for 5 with two RBI to help lift the Rams to a 5-1 win over the Elms College Blazers in Saturday afternoon's non-conference baseball game at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke, Mass.

With the loss, Elms moves to 5-9 on the season, while Framingham State improves to 6-10 overall.

Framingham State took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first when Justin Forman (Watertown, Mass.) earned a two-out walk, advanced to second when Ivan Colon (Waltham, Mass.) reached on an error and then scored on a base hit by Ryan Wardwell (Hudson, Mass.) to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. Jake Wardwell then followed with an RBI single scoring Colon to lift the lead to 2-0. Cameron Couillard (North Andover, Mass.) then sent Ryan Wardwell (Hudson, Mass.) home on a bases-loaded walk to extend the edge to 3-0 before Elms' junior starter Curtis LeBeau (Auburn, Mass.) forced a fly out to end the inning.

The Rams added a run in the fifth on an RBI base hit by Jake Wardwell before Elms pushed across its lone tally of the game in the bottom of the stanza when junior first baseman Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) drove in Dan McCormack (Shelton, Conn.), who drew three walks on the day, with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.

Couillard led off the eighth frame reaching on a bunt single, advanced to second on an Elms error, and then moved to third on a groundout. He then came full circle on a single up the middle by Forman to set the final score at 5-1.

Colon was stellar on the hill for Framingham State pitching five innings and striking out four batters en route to his first win of the season.

Forman and Couillard each pitched two innings of scoreless relief as Forman struck out a batter, while Couillard allowed just two hits.

Elms' senior right-hander Ryan Burnette (Chicopee, Mass.) tossed four frames for the Blazers allowing one run on six hits.

Elms returns to non-league play on Monday, April 1 when it hosts Albertus Magnus College at 7:30 p.m. at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke, Mass., while the Rams travel to Keene State on Thursday.

Release courtesy of Elms Sports Information.