Baseball Advances to Championship Round of the MASCAC Tournament with 4-3 Win over Salem State

Westfield, Mass. – The sixth seeded Framingham State University baseball team advanced to the championship round of the 2017 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Baseball Tournament with a 4-3 victory over second seed Salem State University at Westfield's Hagan Field.

The Rams (20-23), who defeated the Vikings yesterday in Salem in the semifinal round of the tournament, advance to the championship round against fourth seed Worcester State tomorrow at Westfield State at noon.  The Rams, who fell to Worcester earlier today, will have to defeat the Lancers twice to claim the MASCAC crown.

The Vikings see their season come to a close at 23-19.

Sophomore Kevin Connelly tossed a complete game to earn his seventh win of the season. Connelly went nine innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and a walk.

Salem State scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, but the Rams answered with two of their own in the top of the second.  Senior Manny Powers (Malden, Mass.) singled and then came home on a two run homer by sophomore Jordan Pallazola (Rockport, Mass.) to deep left.

The Rams took the lead for good with two in the top of the fourth.  Pallazola singled to left and after an out moved to second on an infield single from sophomore Aaron Williams (Brockton, Mass.).  Sophomore Joe Ambrosino (Bradeton, Fla.) followed with an RBI single scoring Pallazola and Williams came around to score on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Kyle Lippert (Carlsbad, Calif.).

The Vikings added a run in the bottom of the fourth, but that was as close as they would get as Connelly retired 11 in a row to end the game.

Pallazola went 3-for-4 in the game with two RBI and two runs scored, while Williams went 2-for-4 with a run scored.