April 16, 2005
(Newport, RI) The Endicott baseball team returned to historic Cardines Field in downtown Newport, RI in hopes of re-establishing conference supremacy with a sweep of its CCC nemesis, Salve Regina University. However, the Seahawks had other ideas and outplayed the Gulls in the second half of game one to earn a 7-4 victory. With the danger of dropping two looming, the Gulls broke 0-0 game wide open with five in the sixth and nine in the seventh to put up 14 runs. Salve answered with one in sixth and six in the seventh to make it 14-7 but it was not enough and Endicott held on for the win and split of the double header.
Game one was all Endicott early. In the top of the first, Gavin Softic and Kevin Donahue walked to start the game. Matt Bishop drove in Softic with a double, sending Donahue to third. Donahue then scored on a wild pitch to Dan Gomez. The Gulls put up two more in the third behind a Donahue double and a two run homer from Greg Allain to go up 4-0.
Salve got two back in the bottom of the third. Eric Cirella walked and scored on a double by Chris Haddad. Haddad got to third on a pass ball and scored on a sac fly off the bat of Davin Sirpenski. The Seahawks chased Endicott starter Matt Bishop with another run in the fourth. Matt Finlayson reached on an error, stole second and scored on a single by Alex Bush. Salve tied it and took the lead for good in the fifth with three runs on three hits and two walks. Finlayson had an RBI double, Bush had a sac fly RBI and Bob Kemple had an RBI single.
After the third, SRU starter and winner, Chris Haddad, stifled the Endicott bats the rest of the way, pitching four innings of no-hit ball. He faced only one over the minimum because of an infield error. Jon Trowt took the loss in relief.
In game two Ian Parkinson dueled Matt Palmisano of Salve inning for inning. Parkinson allowed only one runner to second base through five innings, striking out five in the process. Palmisano was every bit as tough, allowing only two runners to second through five and striking out eight.
Coupled with the last four innings of game one, the Gulls were working on a nine-inning scoreless streak. That all changed with a vengeance, as EC opened the sixth with three straight hits and a walk. Softic doubled and Donahue broke the deadlock with a sharp single that scored Softic. Bishop doubled home Donahue from first to make it 2-0. Allain was intentionally walked and Dan Gomez bunted the runners up to second and third. Jon Trowt singled to left scoring both runners and making it 4-0. Trowt later scored on a infield error off the bat of Steve Vidmosko.
Salve answered with one in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-1. But the Gulls took the drama out of it with nine runs in the top of the seventh. Allain had a two run double, Pat Vincent had a two run single and Matt Bishop hit a three run homer. The Seahawks would not go away quietly as they scored six of their own in the seventh featuring a three run homer by Rob Perruzzotti and preventing Parkinson from getting his complete game. John Bedard came in to get the last out of the game.
With the split Endicott moves to 16-9 and 9-4 in the CCC, while Salve moves to 13-14 and 9-3 in the CCC. Endicott hosts Anna Maria on Sunday while Salve travels to Colby Sawyer.