Endicott Lives to Defend Its Title
May 1, 2004
Newport, RI, with permission of Ed Habershaw, Salve Regina Sports Information.
As the defending champions, Endicott College advances to the Commonwealth Coast Conference title game tomorrow at Nichols College after sweeping a pair of high-scoring games from \#1 seeded Salve Regina University today in Newport, RI.
In game one at historic Cardines Field, the Gulls had solo homers in the second and third before chasing Salve starter Nick Birtwell with a six run fourth inning. Matt Bishop had six hits on the day; including four homers, three in the first game. Salve Regina scratched six runs off Gulls' starter Greg Allain who had struck out 10 in seven innings and left with a 14-6 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Seahawks greeted Endicott reliever Ian McCarthy with a four run outburst before Jon Trowt finished the game for Endicott with 1.2 scoreless innings of work.
Game two moved to Gaudet field in Middletown, RI and Salve enjoyed a 10-6 lead after Daryl Murtha hit his 25th career home run in the bottom of the sixth.
The Gulls responded with a nine-run seventh inning to take a 15-10 lead. The inning featured two hits apiece from Peter Norke, Kevin Donahue, and Stephen Vidmosko sandwiched around bunt singles from Dustin Aiguier and Mike Lucas.
Salve chipped away with two more in the bottom of the eighth to tighten it back up to 15-12. But Jon Trowt, who was called on again in the sixth, survived the inning and pitched a scoreless ninth to get the win.
The Gulls staved off elimination much like they did last year when they beat Colby-Sawyer twice before winning the championship at Cardines against Salve Regina. Tomorrow they see if they can do it on the road again against Nichols at 12:00pm. Nichols, the tournament's \#2 seed was pushed to the brink of elimination today with a 21-7 loss to Eastern Nazarene. But they responded with firm 22-8 win of their own to earn the right to host tomorrow's game.
With the wins, Endicott moves to 25-19, the most wins in the program's history. Salve drops to 23-16.