Endicott Drops First Round NCAA Game to WNEC, 3-1
May 20, 2004
Story courtesy of Eastern Connecticut Sports Information Department
MANSFIELD, CT - The fifth seeded Gulls lost to second seeded Western New England College, 3-1, this afternoon on the first day of the 2004 NCAA Division III New England Regional Baseball Tournament at the Eastern Connecticut State University Baseball Stadium. Junior Gull, Pat Vincent (MANCHESTER, NH) hit a game tying home run in the top of the third, but the Golden Bears answered in the bottom of the inning with two more runs to take the lead for good.
The loss is the fifth in as many NCAA games in three years for Endicott (26-20) and drops the Gulls into an elimination game tomorrow, Friday, at noon against Amherst College. Amherst lost 5-2 to top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University in today's first game. The NCAA win is the first for any Western New England (32-12) team in any sport and moves the Golden Bears into a winners' bracket game Friday night at 7 p.m. against the winner of Thursday's late game between Babson College and Bridgewater State.
Sophomore righty Jason Connelly (SCITUATE, MA) pitched a complete (seven-hitter) game for the win. Connelly (9-3), a second-team All-New England selection, allowed only one extra-base hit -- the third-inning, game-tying home run by Pat Vincent -- in pitching his ninth complete game in 12 starts this season. He struck out ten without a walk.
With the game tied 1-1 following Vincent's fourth home run of the year -- a two-out blast to left-center -- the Golden Bears scored what proved to be the winning runs in the third off losing pitcher Jack Brancaleone (GLOUCESTER, MA). Jeff Maurutis (MILFORD, CT) doubled to center open the inning and Matt Hackney (BRISTOL, CT) followed with an RBI triple to right-center. Hackney came home on a wild pitch to make it 3-1.
Brancaleone and reliever James Turner (WOBURN, MA) didn't allow another run the rest of the way, allowing only four hits after the third inning. Connelly made the lead stand up, however, striking out eight over the final six innings and scattering six hits. He worked out of jams in the fourth and seventh, when Endicott put two runners aboard in each inning. In the fourth, Greg Allain (BERLIN, NH) and Peter Norke (WALLINGFORD, CT) singled with two out but Connelly got a fly ball to right to end the inning. In the seventh, Norke and Stephen Vidmosko (SHELTON, CT) singled but Connelly got an infield fly for the second out and a strike out to end the inning.