DUDLEY, Mass – Wednesday afternoon the Buccaneers played their first game since returning from their successful trip to Florida earlier in the month against Nichols College. In a 26-run barn burner, the Bucs fell to the Bison 14-12.

The Basics

Bison 14, Buccaneers 12 

Mass Maritime 2-2 (0-0 MASCAC)

Nichols 4-2 (0-0 CCC)

Inside The Numbers

On The Mound

Nichols: Brendan Duffy: (W, 2-0) | 2.0 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 0 BB | 2 K

Mass Maritime: Matt Wooster (Dover, N.H.): (L, 1-1) | 0.1 IP | 3 H | 4 R | 4 ER | 1 BB | 0 K

At The Plate

For The Bucs

• Sophomore Alex Schlapak (Dover, N.H.) recorded four hits in the game going 4-for-4 at the plate including a double. Schlapak drove in a game-high four runs.
• Sophomore catcher Frank Aten (Brockton, Mass) also had four hits in the game going 4-for-5 with two RBI.
• Sophomore Michael Doyle (Boston, Mass) racked up three hits, including two doubles, while also scoring three times.
• Senior Angus McNeil (Middleton, Mass), junior Ben Paine (Dartmouth, Mass), and sophomore Joe Sanchez (Dracut, Mass) each had two hits in the game, including a two-bagger for McNeil. Sanchez drove in two runs, McNeil drove in one.

For The Bison

• DJ Caron led the Bison with three hits in six at bats. He drove in two runs and scored once.
• Four players joined Caron with multi-hit games.
• Brad Ellis and Michael Sobolewski recorded two of the team's three extra base hits in the game, both doubles. Christian Naccari had the third, a home run.
• Six Bison drove in multiple runs in the game.

How It Happened

The Buccaneers were held scoreless in the top of the first inning by the Bison. In the bottom of the first frame the hosts piled on three runs to take an early 3-0 lead.

In the top of the second, the Bucs answered with five runs of their own to take their first lead of the game, 5-3. In the bottom of the inning, Nichols cut the Buc lead to one to make it 5-4 after two innings.

The high scoring affair went over the 10-run mark in the top of the third on a two RBI single by Schlapak, giving Maritime a 7-4 advantage. The Bucs kept the Bison bats quiet in the bottom of the third and neither team plated a run in the fourth inning and the Bucs were held without a run in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom of the fifth innings, a single, double and sacrifice fly brought in three runs for the Bison which tied the game at the time at 7-7.

The Buccaneers proceeded to score an on slot of runs, five in total, in the top of the sixth to take what seemed like a commanding 12-7 lead. A two-run Niccari home run in the bottom of the sixth cut the Buc lead to three, 12-9.

From there it was all Bison for the remainder of the day. Nichols scored one in the bottom of the seventh to pull within two, 12-10. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, the put the game away, scoring four runs to take a 14-12 lead, the eventual final score.