Owls Rally Past Lancers, 9-5

WESTFIELD, Mass.  –   Westfield State's Casey Boudreau (Shrewsbury, Mass.) drove in a pair of runs with a base hit in the second inning to rally the Owls from an early 4-0 deficit to a 9-5 win over Worcester State in a MASCAC baseball game at Bud and Jim Hagan Field on Thursday afternoon.

Worcester jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, aided by two hit batsmen and a walk as Owls' starter Sam Palmer (Medfield, Mass.)  endured a bumpy first inning.    Worcester 2B Chris Wright (Jefferson, Mass./Shrewsbury) drove in two runs with a single, and then Wright and Sean Dutton (Leominster, Mass.) executed a a double steal with Dutton coming home on the back end for the 4-0 lead.

Westfield answered with three in the first inning, as CF Nick Martin (Shrewsbury) led off with a single, and he and placed came around to score on a double by Boudreau, and Boudreau came around to later score on an error to trim the lead to 4-3.  The Owls had a chance to add to the scoring in the first, with Damien Maniscalco ((Branford, Conn.) stranded at third after a controversial third-strike call on Westfield's Devin Slattery (Ware, Mass.) ended the inning.   Slattery was hit in the back by the two-strike pitch as he turned inward to protect himself, but the home plate umpire ruled the pitch strike three.   After an appeal to the base umpire the call stood and the Lancers escaped the first with the lead.

The Lancer lead was short lived, however as the Owls tacked on three more runs in the bottom half of the frame when 3B Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass/Sabis) singled to lead off the inning.  Faulkner scored on Martin's second base hit of the day, and then Boudreau delivered a solid knock to the gap in right center to score Martin and Palmer to give Westfield the lead for good at 6-4.  

Faulkner ripped a line drive triple to the gap in left center field ith one out in the third, then scored on Martin's third hit of the game.  Westfield added single runs in the fourth, and seventh, with pinch hitter Kyle Andreoli (Easton, Conn./Barlow) driving in a run with a base hit to right field in the seventh.

Worcester got one run back in the sixth, as Anthony Iamarone led off with a single and scored on Thomas DiBattista's (Hudson, Mass.) sacrifice fly to left.

With one on and two out in the sixth, Faulkner made the defensive play of the game with a leaping, twisting snag of a line drive off the bat of Worcester's Mike Chaves, Jr. (Hudson, Mass.) to save a run and end the inning.

Westfield's Sean Casey (Amston, Conn./RHAM) (W, 2-0) got the win in relief as the Owls got good length out of the pen from Casey, Joe Fischer (Avon, Mass.)  and Joe Espinola (Plymouth, Mass.), who threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the win.

Boudreau finished 2-4 with four RBI and two runs scored, Martin was 3-5 with two runs and two RBI, and Faulkner finished 2-4 with two runs.

Worcester State starter Cole Glassburn (Hopkinton, Mass.) (L, 2-3) took the loss after lasting just 1.1 innings. Wright was the lone repeat hitter for the Lancers, finishing 2-4 at the plate.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow in Worcester for a 2:00 p.m. conference doubleheader.