April 12, 2004
(Salem, MA) The situation looked good for Endicott at Salem State: A 5-1 lead in the fifth inning and Greg Allain, owner of a 1.24 ERA, on the mound. However, the inning turned ugly, and, in the blink of an eye, the Vikings put up eight runs to take a 9-5 lead. Jon Trowt came in to calm things down, but the damage was done.
Salem got on the board first in the bottom of the second when Mike Morgan doubled with one out and went to third on a fly ball to right. He scored on an infield single by Brian Devine.
The Gulls offense threatened in the second by getting the first two men on, but could not score. They broke through in the fourth picking up five runs on four hits and one SSC error. Matt Bishop hit a two run homer to get the scoring started. After a walk and an error, Pat Vincent hit a two-run double. Dave Babiarz finished the scoring in the inning by doubling in Vincent.
The Salem fifth started with a double by Matt Mahoney and a walk to Talel Saleh. Lead off hitter, Mike Navarro, struck out and it looked like Allain might pitch out of it. Bill Bruneau looped a single over Stephen Vidmosko's head at second base and that started a string of seven consecutive batters reaching first base. All the hits were singles and Allain hit two batters with grazing fast balls. Trowt came in and got the first two men he faced out to stop the bleeding. In all, Salem sent 12 men to the plate and scored eight runs.
The Gulls cut it to 9-7 in the top of the seventh when Abe Bellini singled in Mike Lucas and Matt Bishop. Salem got one run back in the bottom of the seventh on one hit, a stolen base, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.
Pat Vincent got his third hit of the day with a solo homer to right to start the eighth. It looked the Gulls might keep coming back as Vidmosko followed with his second hit. But the rally was squelched when Dave Babiarz's hard liner to second base was easily turned into a double play with Vidmosko frozen at first. The Gulls went 1-2-3 in the ninth.
The non-conference loss makes Endicott 14-13 and improves Salem's record to 13-5.
