April 29, 2005
Beverly, MA -- The Gulls almost squandered a 5-0 7th inning lead, but held on to beat Salve Regina 5-4 in the second round of the CCC Tournament. The win propels Endicott the bracket finals scheduled for Sunday, May 1 at 10:00am. They await the winner of the Colby Sawyer/Salve Regina match up to be played on Saturday, April 30. Colby Sawyer eliminated Wentworth from the tournament 8-6.
Matt Bishop took a one hit shutout into the seventh inning. But after two two-out walks, Jason Newham came on to replace him. Newham wasted little time getting the third out as he threw one pitch to pinch hitter Bobby Kemple and got a fielder's choice out at second base.
In the eighth, the Seahawks put together a rally that was fueled by Endicott miscues. The lead off batter, Steve Tressler, reached on a fielding error by Steve Vidmosko. Eric Cirella then doubled to left on a ball that Gavin Softic could not see out of the shadows around homeplate. Chris Haddad hit an infield single off the glove of Newham that scored Tressler. Rob Peruzzotti hit a sac fly to bring in Cirella for the Seahawk's second run. Davin Sirpenski hit a shot a third baseman, Mark Vaughan, who got a force at second, but not a double play. Finlayson scored on the play to make it 5-3. Newham got Alex Bush on a strike out to end the inning.
After a quiet eighth for Endicott, the Seahawks came to bat against Jon Trowt, who relieved Newham. He walked Jay Boss and struck out pinch hitter, Chris Wilusz. Steve Tressler lined to right for the second out, but Salve was not finished. Chris Cirella drew his second walk of the game to make it 1st and 2nd. Matt Finlayson got a clutch single to right to score Boss and send Cirella to third. Chris Haddad hit a sinking liner to right center that stayed up long enough for Brendan Tiani to catch for the game's final out.
Endicott drew first blood in the bottom of the first when Greg Allain doubled home Matt Bishop who walked with two outs. They tacked on another run in the second when Dan Gomez hit a sac fly to score Kevin Donahue who singled to start the inning.
The Gulls had big three-run fourth that featured three two-out hits. Vaughan led off with a single. Tiani moved him up with a bunt. After Pat Vincent flew out, Softic pushed a single through the left side to score Vaughan. Softic then scored all the way from first on a Kevin Donahue double to left center. Bishop then doubled him in for the third run of the inning.
John Zuccaro took over for Rich Fuller and blanked the Gulls on one hit for the final 4.1 innings. Matt Bishop had a strong performance, going 6.2 innings and allowing just one hit and four walks. He struck out eight. John Trowt collected his third save of the year.
Complete CCC tournament bracket updates are available in the highlights section to the right of this story.
