SALEM — Mike Davis (Peabody, MA) smacked two home runs for Salem State, but Oscar Kutch (Houston, TX) led the Jumbos of Tufts University with a 4-for-5 performance, driving in five runs as they defeated the Vikings11-7 Monday afternoon at Central Campus Baseball Field. The Jumbos improve to 12-3 on the season while Salem State drops to 7-10-1.
The Jumbos wasted no time jumping on Vikings’ starting pitcher Steve Leavitt (Peabody, MA). Cody McCallum (Rutherford, NJ) led off the game with a single to left field that was followed up with a Kutch RBI-triple to take an early 1-0 lead. However, Salem State took the lead in the bottom of the second inning when Davis drove a ball over the left field fence to bring in Dan Connors (Danvers, MA) for a 2-1 edge.
Leavitt ran into trouble in the fourth inning when he gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Tufts knotted the game at 2-2 when Christian Zazzali (Scotch Plains, NJ) brought in Tommy O’Hara (Glenview, IL). Two batters later, Harrison Frickman (Charleston, SC) gave the Jumbos a 3-2 lead with an RBI-single that drove in Zazzali. After hitting McCallum, Leavitt surrendered a two-run single to Kutch that put Tufts ahead 5-2. Pete Gonski (East Lyme, CT) came on in relief, but was immediately challenged as Matt Moser (Great Falls, VA) brought the score to 6-2 in favor of the Jumbos with an RBI-single. After hitting O’Hara with a pitch Gonski got Mike McLaughlin (Haddonfield, NJ) to ground out of to shortstop to escape the inning surrendering only one run.
Down 6-2, the Vikings were in desperate need of some offense. Joe White (Bellingham, MA) led off the inning with a double down the right field line which set up the hot bat of Davis. Davis cut the deficit to 6-4 with his MASCAC-leading seventh home run of the season that was blasted over the left field fence.
Tufts had another huge inning in the fifth, which started with Kevin Godin (Canton, MA) getting on by a Vikings’ error. Gonski then walked two batters and surrendered another run before George Tsonis(Peabody, MA) came in for Gonski midway through the inning. However, the first batter Tsonis saw drove a two-run single to the gap in right center field to put Tufts ahead 9-4. O’Hara enhanced the Jumbos lead to 11-4 with another two-run double to give Tufts some insurance runs as the Jumbos batted around for the second inning in a row.
R.J. Hall (Marietta, GA) was cruising through the Salem State lineup despite allowing two homeruns to Davis. Hall went six solid innings where he allowed five runs (four earned) off 10 hits. Matt Rothstein (Roslyn, NY) came in relief for Hall, but only saw two batters as he was pulled after walking Teghan Malionek (Salem, MA) and Richard Fecteau (Newbury, MA) to force in a run to bring the score to 11-6. Joe Thomas (Kansas City, MO) came in relief for Rothstein. Connors cut the deficit to 11-7 in the seventh with a grounder that brought in Alex Toomey (Beverly, MA).
Thomas closed out the game for the Jumbos to secure a 11-7 victory. Thomas pitched the final three innings allowing only two hits while striking out four Vikings.
Matt Abrain (Northbridge, MA) pitched the final four innings for Salem State as he only gave up three hits and no runs. Hall earned the win for the Jumbos to improve his record to 3-0 while Leavitt gets the loss putting him at 0-2. Davis finished 2-for-4 with four RBI.
The Vikings will travel to UMass Boston tomorrow, April 12th, to take on the Beacons at 6:00 p.m. Tufts will resume action on April 12th as well when they host conference opponent Roger Williams at 3:00 p.m.
__________________________________________________________________________________
SALEM — Salem State evened their record at 3-3 with a 6-3 win over the Emerson Lions on Monday afternoon at Rockett Arena. Chen Chen earned two wins for Salem State, playing third singles and second doubles. Chen recorded a 6-0, 6-1 win over Blake Greenwalt in third singles and joined David Dluznieski at second doubles to defeat Greenwalt and Matt Jepskey.
Emerson won both first and second singles as Nik Rhodes defeated John Didonato 6-2, 6-1 in first singles and Dan Okin beat Connor Erickson 6-1, 6-0 in second singles. Kevin Lam won at No. 4 for the Vikings, winning 6-1, 6-2 over Samir Beria and Dluznieski won at No. 5 singles, defeating Jepskey 6-1, 6-1. The Lions defaulted in No. 6 singles and third doubles.
Salem State will host Suffolk University on Thursday at 3:30 Pm while Emerson travles to Clark University for a 4:00 PM start on Wednesday.
Salem St. 6, Emerson 3
Apr 11, 2016 at Salem, Mass. (Central Campus)
|
Singles competition |
|
1. Nik Rhodes (EME) def. John Didonato (SSU) 6-2, 6-1 |
|
2. Daniel Okin (EME) def. Conner Erickson (SSU) 6-1, 6-0 |
|
3. Chen Chen (SSU) def. Blake Greenawalt (EME) 6-0, 6-1 |
|
4. Kevin Lam (SSU) def. Samir Beria (EME) 6-1, 6-2 |
|
5. David Dluznieski (SSU) def. Matt Jepsky (EME) 6-1, 6-1 |
|
6. No player (SSU) def. No player (EME), by default |
|
Doubles competition |
|
1. Daniel Okin/Nik Rhodes (EME) def. John Didonato/Conner Erickson (SSU) 8-6 |
|
2. Chen Chen/David Dluznieski (SSU) def. Blake Greenawalt/Matt Jepsky (EME) 8-6 |
|
3. No player/No player (SSU) def. No player/No player (EME), by default |
|
Match Notes |
|
Emerson 5-3 |
|
Salem St. 3-3 |
|
T-3:00 A-25 |
