Gulls Shut Out by Roger Williams in CCC Tournament

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BEVERLY, Mass. – After posting a shutout in the first game of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) baseball tournament, Endicott was held scoreless their second time out, falling 8-0 to Roger Williams to find themselves on the brink of elimination.

Endicott drops to 27-15 on the season and will need to come out of the loser’s bracket to stay in contention for the CCC baseball title.
The Hawks (16-25) are the only team left in the tournament without a loss on their record.

Third baseman Danny Mello (Peabody, Mass.) and outfielder Michael Russo (Natick, Mass.) each had 2-3 days at the plate, but Endicott could muster only seven hits and left eight runners on the base paths.

Roger Williams hit five doubles and had four players with multi-hit games, including right fielder Trevor Larson (Northbridge, Mass.), who went 2-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, and center fielder Chris Comeau (Southbury, Conn.), who homered to left center in the fifth inning and scored twice in the game.

The Hawks got the lead in the second on back-to-back doubles by Trevor Manzi (Beverly, Mass.) and Chris Travers (East Freetown, Mass.). The next inning it was two-base hits by Mike Pascarella (Milford, Conn.) and John Oppenhimer (Westport, Conn.) that plated two more runs to give the visitors a 3-0 advantage.

After Comeau’s homer, Larson got involved in the sixth, doubling home third baseman Mike Thomas (Plainville, Conn.) and scoring when Comeau reached on an error by Mello. Larson added an RBI single in the eighth to plate Travers and would cross the plate in the same inning a single by senior designated hitter Tim Georgen (Bristol, Conn.).

Sophomore lefty Sean Boyle (Arlington, Mass.) pitched a gem for Roger Williams, going the distance for his fifth complete game and improving to 6-4 on the year. Boyle allowed seven hits and just one walk and struck out seven Gulls.  

Endicott’s best scoring threat came in the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Gulls used a Mello single and two hit batsmen to load the bases with two outs, but Boyle got left fielder Ralph Fidaleo (Fairfield, Conn.) to strike out swinging to end the threat and keep the game scoreless.

The Gulls had trouble on the base-paths as well. Mello was caught stealing in the third inning, a frame after catcher Robert Goldstick (Deerfield, Ill.) was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

Senior Mike Nich (Orange, Conn.) suffered just his second loss of the year (5-2). Nich went four innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits and collected one strikeout.

Lefty Zac Poland (Essex Junction, Vt.) pitched a perfect final 1.2 innings for Endicott.

The Gulls will play an elimination game tomorrow against the top seed Western New England at 11:00 am in Springfield. Roger Williams will take a bye into tomorrow afternoon.