Lancers Baseball Grabs Win Number Two in Split with Scranton
Myrtle Beach, SC- The Worcester State Baseball had another showing under the lights in their second day of the season, taking on the University of Scranton in a late night 7-inning double header.
Myrtle Beach, SC- The Worcester State Baseball had another showing under the lights in their second day of the season, taking on the University of Scranton in a late night 7-inning double header.
The first inning saw their first batter Xavier Quezada get on base off an error from the Scranton shortstop, but two strikeouts and a pick off stealing sent the Lancers back to their bench with no gain. Worcester refused to allow another missed opportunity in the second inning, as 8 straight balls from Scranton's pitcher Moreira had the bases loaded after a single from sophomore Anthony Iamarone (Providence, RI) had him already sitting on first. A wild pitch sent Iamarone racing home and the Lancers into the single run lead. Despite the questionable pitching in the inning Worcester was only able to come away with a single run as Scranton's defense rallied to get out of the inning.
A quick 1,2,3 inning for the Lancers at bat brough Scranton back up to bat hoping to steal a run back. While they did slip two hits into the outfield gap and a line dive down center, a ground out and popped out foul saw them out of the inning with no offensive success. The Lancers were quick to capitalize when they came back up to bat when just a couple pitches into the first batter of the inning, senior Alex Sorenti-Burns (Sagamore, Beach, MA) sent the ball sailing over left field for a single run home run. The next three batters went down swinging without successfully converting those swings to base action. Again, the bottom of the inning saw Scranton attempting to add a little life to their offense, but sharp fielding from the Lancers led to a crisp double play to bring the Lancers back up to bat.
Senior Chris Ausiello (Tyngsboro, MA) brought the excitement in the 5th when he thought he had a deep triple when the slight hill deep in right made difficult work for the fielder but Reposa's arm had just a bit more speed in it then expected, getting his ball to Elston just in time to rob Ausiello. The unexpected carried over to the bottom of the fifth as senior Cole Glassburn (Hopkinton, MA) tossed 8 balls of his own to put two on base for Scranton and no outs on the board. He showed his skill and composure from there, striking out the next three batters to work Worcester out of the inning.
The sixth inning saw another deep Sorenti-Burns bomber, this time good for two runs to put the Lancers up 4-0 at the top of the 6th inning. Worcester State made quick work in the bottom of the inning. Ausiello snagged a deep double into right field but a pitching change for Scranton made extra hits hard to come by as the Lancers moved into the bottom of the inning to grab their second win of the season. Contact was the name of the game in the 7th as each team was knocking fouls a plenty but the hot commodity was the hit, which each found hard to find allowing the Lancers to wrap up the 4-0 victory.
Sorenti-Burns led the Lancers going 2-2 at the plate with three RBIs and two home runs on two hits. Glassburn pitched for 5.1 innings (85-52) allowing only five hits and recording seven strikeouts for the win, while junior Jared Kapurch (Charlton, MA) pitched 1.2 innings (23-18) for the save.
Worcester State hoped for more of the same in game two, and senior Kevin Zarnoch Jr. came out throwing the heat, clocking in at 88 mph. He struck out the first two batters before the last grabbed a piece of a pitch for a fly out to right field. Sophomore Tyler Smith (Leominster, MA) kept the groove going, sending a line drive to left field for a single to get a runner on base early. An error by Scranton's first baseman on Ausiello single put two on base for the Lancers with no outs. A ground out by graduate student Sean Devin (Lynn, MA) and a miss thrown ball gave Tyler Smith time to round third and get home for the first run of the game. The second inning flew by for both teams as their defense made strong stands to keep both ends without a run. A single by Tyler Smith put him back on base looking for a repeat of the first inning and did not disappoint. Sorenti-Burns connected on a single between first and second, but was too quick to the bag so Scranton and Smith, seeing an opportunity, took off from third to beat the tag at home for the second run of the game.
Scranton connected for the first hit of game two, when pinch hitter Reposa connected to line a ball down the third base foul line for a double. Zarnoch held strong from the mound striking out the next three batters in order. The top of fifth found the Lancers hard work attempting to defend their lead as a series of hits and walks found the bases loaded with no outs. Senior Brett Bucklin (Lynn, MA) was called in to defuse the situation. Scranton was able to capitalize on the situation to come away with five runs off a number of Worcester State unforced errors in the field to take the lead 5-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, Tyler Smith again looked to recreate the magic of the first and third inning with a single and stolen base to get things started back up for the Lancers. Just as previous innings played out, Sorenti-Burns brought Tyler home to cut the lead to two. Sorenti-Burns and Devin looked to add to the fifth inning fun after a base on balls placed Devin on first but an aggressive Iamarone was struck out swinging to close out the fifth.
Tyler Smith and Sorenti-Burns lead the Lancers with Smith recording three runs on three hits while Sorenti-Burns added another two RBIs to his total. Zarnoch went four innings (85-46) allowing three runs and recording nine strikeouts.
The Lancers (2-1, 0-0) are back in action tomorrow night when they have a single game set versus McDaniel College at 6pm.