Simone, Kennedy Drive In Runs As Baseball Drops 8-2 Non-League Decision To Ninth-Ranked Tufts

Simone, Kennedy Drive In Runs As Baseball Drops 8-2 Non-League Decision To Ninth-Ranked Tufts

MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME BASEBALL

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

New England Baseball Complex, Northboro, Mass.

 

FINAL:              TUFTS 8, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 2

                                                                      
                              

NORTHBORO, Mass. --  Junior Mike McLaughlin (Haddonfield, N.J.) and Nick Falkson (Dedham, Mass.) each drove in two runs as six pitchers combined on a four-hitter to lift ninth-ranked Tufts to an 8-2 non-league college baseball victory over Massachusetts Maritime Wednesday evening at the New England Baseball Complex.

 

The host Jumbos (9-1) jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead on McLaughlin’s two-run single, and Tufts extended that margin to 3-0 in the third on sophomore Harrison Frickman’s (Charleston, S.C.) RBI single.  The visiting Buccaneers (5-4) got on the board in the fourth on freshman Jackson Simone’s (Seattle, Wash.) run-scoring double and closed to within 3-2 in the fifth on an RBI groundout off the bat of junior Connor Kennedy (West Barnstable, Mass.), but senior Oscar Kutch’s (Houston, Tex.) solo homer down the right field line in the bottom of the sixth gave the Jumbos a 4-2 edge.  The hosts iced their triumph with a four-run rally in the bottom of the eighth, as a sacrifice fly by sophomore Will Shackelford (Orleans, Mass.), coupled with Falkson’s two-run single and sophomore Casey Santos-Ocampo’s (Naples, Fla.) RBI safety, accounted for the insurance tallies and the final margin.

 

Kutch, Falkson and Santos-Ocampo each had two hits as part of a 12-hit attack in the win for Tufts, as sophomore R.J. Hall (Marietta, Ga.) tossed three scoreless innings and struck out five to pick up his first win of the season on the mound for the Jumbos.  Seniors Jake Petruzzelli (Abington, Mass.) and Aidan Desrosiers (North Attleboro, Mass.), along with sophomore Robert Dembitzki (North Dartmouth, Mass.), joined Simone in collecting hits in the setback for Massachusetts Maritime, as freshman Andrew Auld (Wakefield, Mass.) allowed seven hits and three earned runs while striking out three over the first six innings of work to fall to 1-2 on the spring for the Buccaneers.

 

Massachusetts Maritime hosts Wentworth in a non-league outing on Thursday afternoon at Commodore Hendy Field beginning at 3:30 p.m., while Tufts heads to Hartford, Conn. to begin a three-game New England Small College Athletic Conference weekend series with Trinity on Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.

 

(Photo Credit:  Justin Reidy)