Maher Drives In Pair Of Runs As Baseball Drops Late Inning 8-4 Decision To Johnson & Wales

MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME BASEBALL

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Commodore Hendy Field, Buzzards Bay, Mass.

FINAL:                   JOHNSON & WALES 8, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 4

                                                                                123         456         789                         R             H             E

Johnson & Wales (13-9-1)                                 000         100         205         -               8              10           1                             

Massachusetts Maritime (7-6)                          000         011         110         -               4              7              3

BATTERIES

JWU:      Remy Cohen, Tim Ashworth (3), Rob Clark (4), Matt Alexander (5), Aaron Fenstermacher (6),

                Marc Sommerhalter (8) and Sean Radu, Joe Coppola (2)

MMA:      Corey Murphy, Nick Thomas (7), Jared Lowe (9) and William Shouldice, Ben Maher (6)

WP:         Sommerhalter (4-0)            LP:          Thomas (2-2)       Home Run:  JWU – Pete Rosa (2)

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. --  Sophomore Pete Rosa (Ambler, Pa.) rapped out a pair of hits and sparked a pair of late inning rallies, including a five-run outburst in the top of the ninth, to lift Johnson & Wales to an 8-4 non-league college baseball victory over Massachusetts Maritime Thursday afternoon at Commodore Hendy Field.

The visiting Wildcats (13-9-1) trailed 4-3 heading into their final at-bat, but Rosa evened matters at 4-4 with a one-out RBI single before senior Bryan Sayers (Chelmsford, Mass.) plated the go-ahead run after being hit by a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded.  Rosa scored on a passed ball to extend Johnson & Wales’ lead to 6-4, and a two-run single off the bat of senior Mike Murphy (Pawtucket, R.I.) capped the rally for the visitors, who overcame a pair of one-run deficits in the late innings.

Murphy’s RBI single in the top of the fourth gave the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead, but the host Buccaneers (7-6) evened matters in the fifth on a run-scoring groundout off the bat of sophomore Tyler Genereux (Duxbury, Mass.) and took a 2-1 advantage in the sixth on an RBI groundout by freshman Ben Maher (Plymouth, Mass.).  Rosa gave Johnson & Wales a 3-2 edge in the top of the seventh by blasting a two-run homer, his second of the season, but Massachusetts Maritime again tied things in the bottom of the frame when senior Michael Vargas (Framingham, Mass.) stole home.  The hosts took a 4-3 lead in the eighth on Maher’s two-out RBI single, but the Wildcats used three hits and a pair of Buccaneer errors to plate their deciding rally in the ninth.

Murphy joined Rosa with two hits and three RBI in the triumph for Johnson & Wales, which also received three hits from sophomore Zach Boyes (West Warwick, R.I.) and a pair of safeties from freshman Alex Pezzuto (Hastings, N.Y.) as part of a 10-hit attack.  Junior Marc Sommerhalter (Emerson, N.J.), the sixth Wildcat pitcher of the afternoon, improved to 4-0 with two innings of relief work, as he fanned one despite giving up Maher’s go-ahead single in the eighth.

Seven different Buccaneers collected hits, including doubles by Vargas and Genereux, in the setback for Massachusetts Maritime, as freshman Nick Thomas (Brockton, Mass.) suffered the setback on the mound for the hosts in relief of senior Corey Murphy (East Wareham, Mass.), who fanned eight over the first 6 2/3 innings of work.

Massachusetts Maritime heads to Framingham, Mass. on Sunday afternoon to take on Framingham State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m., while Johnson & Wales hosts Suffolk in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference twinbill on Saturday afternoon in East Providence, R.I. beginning at Noon.