BUZZARDS BAY, Mass -- Maritime Baseball hosted Nichols College on Thursday afternoon in a non-conference matchup at Hendy Field. In a game that took nearly three hours, had 21 runs, 20 hits and saw 13 different pitchers ended in a nail biting 11-10 win for the Bucs.

The Basics

Final: Buccaneers 11, Bison 10

Records: Maritime (4-2)

               Nichols (1-5)

On The Mound

Maritime: Chase Dwight (W, 1-0): 2 IP | 0 H | 0 R | 0 BB | 3 K

                Justin Brown (Sv, 1): 1 IP | 2 H | 1 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 0 K

Nichols: Aidan Whitten (L, 0-1): 3 IP | 3 H | 2 R | 2 ER | 3 BB | 4 K

At The Plate

Maritime

• Frank Aten, Brett Velzis, AJ Pietrafesa, and Tucker Leslie all had two-hit games for the Bucs. 
• Zach Sylvia, John Tropea, and Max Hefner all had one hit. 
• Pietrafesa and Leslie each drove in three runs. 
• Velzis drove in two runs with Aten, Tropea, Hefner, adn Jake Quillen all plating one run.
• Sylvia scored three of the 11 runs. Aten, Velzis and Pietrafesa all scored twice. Tropea and Leslie scored once. 
• Sylvia, Velzis, and Leslie all had doubles. 
• Aten and Hefner each hit a triple.
• Sylvia was credited with the only stolen base in the game.

Nichols

• Johnny Knox had the only multi-hit game for the Bison with two hits. 
• Andrew Croteau, Stanley Cipkas, Karl Miller, Zachary McCarthy, Kyle Birks, Kelvin Gutierrez, and Noah Hickey all had one hit.
• Cipkas, McCarthy, Birks, Gutierrez, and Taj Vera Cruz all drove in runs.
• 10 Different Players scored in the game for Nichols.
• Gutierrez was the only player to record an extra base hit, a double, in the loss.

How It Happened

On a bullpen day for the Bucs pitching staff, it was known that there would be a lot of pitchers in the game for Maritime if not both teams. Dwight got the start and was stellar through two innings in his Collegiate debut. In the bottom of the first, the Bucs offense helped the freshman out by plating two runs on a bases loaded walk of Pietrafesa and another bases loaded walk of Quillen. The Bucs led 2-0 after one inning of play.

Whitten settled down for the Bison in the second and Dwight kept cruising for Maritime. In the top of the third, Nichols cut the deficit in half to 2-1 when McCarthy scored on a wild pitch.

The 2-1 lead for the Bucs held until the bottom of the fifth when they extended the lead to three runs, their largest of the game yet. An infield hit from Tropea scored Velzis from third and Leslie singled to right center to score Pietrafesa to make it 4-1 Bucs. 

In the top of the sixth, Nichols scored two on a bases loaded walk and then a passed ball to bring the score to 4-3. In the bottom of the frame, the Bucs scored three in an electric inning for the hosts. Sylvia was hit by a pitch, the fifth of the game for Nichols pitching, and was driven in by an Aten triple. Velzis doubled in the next at bat to bring in Aten and Pietrafesa singled to score Velzis and give the Bucs a four-run, 7-3 advantage. 

With no scoring in the seventh, the Bison brought in one run in the eighth when Gutierrez doubled to bring in Dylan Moran. With the score 7-4, Maritime broke out in the bottom of the eighth scoring four times to take their biggest lead of the day, a seven-run, 11-4 advantage. 

With the game seemingly in hand, the Bucs took the field in the ninth with a big lead and the Bison did not go away easily. Emptying the bench with a slew of pinch hitters, Nichols went on to score six runs in the inning. They scored three by way of wild pitches, one on a ground out, another on a single and the last one on a fielder's choice. With the tying run on third, Brown got the final Nichols hitter of the game to fly out to Conor Coulter in center field and the Bucs held on by the skin of their teeth for the 11-10 victory.

What's Next

Maritime will play their next game at home on Tuesday, March 14th against Coast Guard. First pitch is scheduled for 4pm.