WORCESTER, Mass -- The Buccaneers baseball team opened their regular season finale conference series with Worcester State on Friday afternoon on the road. The Bucs, looking to lock up the fifth place spot in the conference playoffs next week, got three hits and three RBI from senior first baseman AJ Pietrafesa but it wasn't enough to hold off the Lancers as the hosts took game one, 12-5.

The Basics

Final: Lancer 12, Buccaneers 5

Records: Worcester (9-25, 8-11)

               Maritime (16-19, 9-10)

On The Mound

Worcester: Danny DiMassimo (W, 3-0): 7 IP | 9 H | 5 R | 2 ER | 2 BB | 3 K

Maritime: Sam Huffman (L, 0-5): 3.1 IP | 8 H | 7 R | 7 ER | 3 BB | 2 K

Inside the Numbers

Maritime

• AJ Pietrafesa had three hits, including a double in the game. Damon White and Michael Estrada both had two hits. Tucker Leslie, Hunter Dean, and Alec Marsden all had one hit, Leslie's was a double.
• Pietrafesa drove in three runs in the loss. Michael Logiudice and Dean each had one. 
• White scored twice and Leslie, Logiudice, and Pietrafesa all scored once.
• White logged the only stolen base in the game for Maritime.

Worcester

• Tyler Smith and Tom Halliwell each had three hits in the game. Ryan Jewett, Michael Cooper, and Colin Fitzgerald all had two hits. Frankie Hernandez and Jeremy DeLabruz both had one base knock.
• Three players drove in two runs each. Four drove in one apiece.
• Halliwell scored three times, Jewett and Smith twice. Kevin Doyle, Hernande, Nathan Thurber, Michael Coope, and Fitzgerald all scored once.
• Cooper hit a home run late in the game, Halliwell had a triple and a double for the Lancers. Smith recorded three doubles in the win.
• Doyle had two stolen bases and Jewett notched one in the game.

How It Happened

Maritime took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Logiudice reached on an error that allowed Leslie to come around and score. Later in the inning, Pietrafesa singled to bring in Logiudice.

In the bottom of the second, Fitzgerald singled and scored two runs to tie the game at 2-2. 

In the top of the third, the Bucs retook the lead, again by two runs. Pietrafesa drove in White on a single and Dean reached on a fielder's choice. Following an error on the play by Worcester, Pietrafesa scored to put the Bucs up by two runs. In the home half of the frame, the Lancers scored three times to take their first, and last, lead of the ball game, 5-4.

Worcester added two runs in the bottom of the fourth and three more in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to six runs, 10-4, after five.

After a scoreless sixth, the Bucs got a run back in the top of the seventh when Pietrafesa doubled down the left field line and White came in to score to cut the deficit to five runs, 10-5.

In the bottom of the eighth, Worcester added two more on Cooper's home run. The Lancers went on to win by a 12-5 final in game one of the three-game MASCAC series.

What's Next

The Bucs and Lancers meet in Buzzards Bay on Saturday to settle their three-game series and lock in their spot in the MASCAC tournament next week. First pitch of game one is set for 12pm.