Baseball Closes Regular Season with 6-4 Loss to Amherst

Northboro, Mass. – The Framingham State University baseball team closed the regular season this evening with a 6-4 loss to Amherst College in non-conference action at the New England Baseball Complex.

With the win, Amherst improves to 22-10 on the season, while the Rams fall to 10-29.

Amherst was led at the plate by junior Anthony Spina who went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and three RBI, while Dave Cunningham chipped in a pair of hits.

The Rams were led by senior Ryan Connelly (Hyde Park, Mass.) who recorded a pair of hits, drove in a run and scored a run.

Amherst got on the board first in the top of the second when Spina doubled and moved to third on an out.  Spina then stole home while the Rams pitcher was in his windup for the game's first run.

The Rams quickly tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run to left off the bat of senior RJ Gray (Lowell, Mass.).

Spina's solo home run to in the top of the fourth put the visitors back on top, but the Rams answered with a run in the bottom of the inning as Connelly scored on an error to tie the game at 2-2.

Amherst took the lead back for good in the top of the on Spina's second homer of the game. This one was a two run shot to left.  The Rams got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Connelly singled up the middle scoring senior Jon Chapman (Waltham, Mass.).

Amherst pushed the lead back to two in the top of the seventh on an RBI sinlge from Yanni Thanopoulos.  The Rams loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning, but were only able to push one run across.  Amherst tacked on a final run in the top of the eighth to reach the final margin.

Sophomore Al Wallach (Nahant, Mass.) took the loss for the Rams going two thirds of an inning and allowing two earned runs on two hits.  George Long earned the win for Amherst going 5.1 and allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits with five strikeouts.

The Rams are back in action Thursday afternoon in an opening round game of the MASCAC Tournament at Fitchburg State at 3 p.m.