Baseball Sweeps Hartford, 5-0 and 14-4 (7 Inn.)

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The Endicott baseball team swept Hartford, 5-0 and 14-4 (7 innings), in Sunday afternoon's Conference of New England (CNE) doubleheader from Fiondella Field.

GAME ONE: ENDICOTT 5, HARTFORD 0

WP (3-0): Jake Harmony (Fairfield, Conn.) — 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
LP (3-2): Anthony Bubba (Jefferson, N.J.) — 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

Through seven innings, neither side could find any offense despite plenty of scoring opportunities. 

In the eighth, the Gulls finally cashed in to break up the pitching deul. John Fusco (Naples, Fla.) kicked off the rally with a double into the right field corner, setting up Adam Regan (Braintree, Mass.) for a big at-bat.

Regan squared up to bunt initially, but pulled back and turned on an up-and-in fastball deep to left, crushing it way over the fence to put the Gulls in front, 2-0.

Then, later in the frame, the Gulls loaded up the bases for Trevor Kamuda (Groveland, Mass.) with two outs. On a 1-2 count, Kamuda lined one into right that dropped beneath the dive of the right fielder, plating two insurance runs for the Gulls.

The following inning, Endicott added another after Brady Paradis (North Attleboro, Mass.) led off with a single and later came around to score on AJ Hamm's (Shrewsbury, Mass.) bases loaded walk. 

That five-run cushion was plenty for the stellar pitching staff.

Brady Stuart (Hudson, Mass.) went six strong (6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K), before turning it over to Harmony, who was nearly perfect through three innings of work (one batter reached on an error).

GAME TWO: ENDICOTT 14, HARTFORD 4 (7 INN.)

WP (3-1): Ben Gill (Sanford, Maine) — 3.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
LP (1-2): Joe Dooley (West Hartford, Conn.) — 2.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
SV (1): Jeremy Krendel (Framingham, Mass.) — 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

The Gulls' offense erupted in game two to secure the sweep.

Two runs in the first, three in the second, one in the third, and two in the sixth gave the Blue and Green a comfortable 8-4 lead through six frames.

Regan immediately kicked off the game with some excitement, as he blooped one into left and made it all the way around to third as the leadoff man. He later came in on Hamm's RBI single, and Kyle Grabowski (Westfield, Mass.) joined him with an RBI base-knock later in the frame to make it 2-0.

After Hartford evened the score in the bottom of the first, the Gulls got three back in the second highlighted by RBI base hits from Fusco and Regan.

Fusco added to his big day with another RBI single in the third (6-3 Gulls), and with another Hawks run in the fourth, the score stood at 6-4.

Those numbers held until the sixth, when Brenden Walsh (Reading, Mass.) crushed a two-run homer over the left field fence to make it 8-4.

Then, needing six runs to enable the seven-inning mercy rule, the Gulls rallied in the seventh.

TJ Liponis (Scarborough, Maine) and Hamm each notched two-run doubles in the inning to get the Gulls the four runs they were searching for, and a clean bottom of the seventh from Krendel (2 K's) locked up the 14-4 win.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Endicott is now 6-0 all-time against Hartford.
• First career save for Krendel.
• Regan's homer was his second this week, while Walsh hit his third of the season.
• After a 1-4 start to the season, Endicott has won nine of its last 10 games.
• Hamm led the squad with three RBI's (two-for-five) in game two.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (10-5, 3-0 CNE) faces Gordon on Tuesday in a 3 PM CNE contest. Hartford (6-9, 1-2 CNE) hosts Johnson & Wales this Tuesday for a 3:30 PM CNE matchup. 

For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Photo Credit - Jonah Bean '28)