Baseball Falls to Springfield in ECAC Tournament
Springfield, Mass. – The Framingham State University baseball team closed the 2014 season this afternoon with a 5-2 loss at Springfield College in one quarterfinal of the 2014 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Baseball Championship.
The fourth seeded Pride (21-15) advances to the ECAC semifinals to take on the winner of No. 1 Roger Williams and No. 8 Becker College. Fifth-seeded Framingham State ends the season with a record of 20-19.
Eric Chase (Vernon, Conn.) earned the win on the mound, allowing just one run over six innings of work. Alex Williams (East Hartford, Conn.) pitched two innings of hitless relief and Peter Baranski (Hamden, Conn.) closed it out in the ninth allowing one run.
Senior Matt DiCato (Winthrop, Mass.) took the loss for the Rams allowing five runs, two earned, over six innings of work.
The Rams threatened early on in the contest, as senior Matt Roberge (Lowell, Mass.) beat out a bunt single to lead off the second inning. Classmate Anthony Iafolla (Medfield, Mass.) singled to right field to put runners on first and second and junior Ivan Colon (Waltham, Mass.) fouled out for the first out of the inning, but Roberge advanced to third on the catch. Chase got out of the jam on a double play ball to end the inning.
Freshman Manny Powers (Malden, Mass.) led off the third with a single to left and sophomore Jake Wardwell (Hudson, Mass.) put runners on first and second with a bunt single a few feet in front of the plate. After a fly ball to center field, the Pride picked up the second out of the inning on a ground ball to third base, but both of the Rams' runners advanced on the play. Senior Billy Derosier (Shrewsbury, Mass.) drove in the game's first run on a two-out single to right field, scoring Powers.
Springfield collected its first hit of the game with two outs in the third, as Billy Peterson (Wareham, Mass.) put a line drive into left field, but a fly ball ended the inning.
The Pride took a two-run advantage in the bottom of the fourth as Sean Smith (Broken Arrow, Okla) got things going for the Pride with a single to center field with one out in the inning. Brent Poulin (Atascadero, Calif.) singled to the same spot in next at-bat and Steve Starr (Lebanon, Conn.) got the Pride on the board with an RBI single through the right side of the infield.
Smith gave the Pride a nice cushion in the bottom of the fifth with a base-clearing triple to deep center field, scoring Frank Calabrese (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Shane O'Leary (Kings Park, N.Y) for a 5-1 advantage.
Framingham tacked on a run in the bottom of the ninth to make it a 5-2 game, but the Pride closed it out to earn the win. Roberge singled to start the inning and Iafolla drove him in on a double to deep left field.
Roberege and Iafolla each finished with three hits for the Rams, while Wardwell finished with two.
Release courtesy of Springfield Sports Information.