BEVERLY, Mass. — The No. 1 Endicott baseball team defeated Western New England, 11-3, in Monday afternoon's makeup game at North Field.
WP (3-0): John Connolly (Attleboro, Mass.) — 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
LP (0-2): Matt Lauria (East Haddam, Conn.) — 1.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
The Gulls pounced on the Golden Bears right out of the gate, as they scored five runs on five hits in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a Brendan O'Neil (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) two-run tape measure shot to right center field and a TJ Liponis (Scarborough, Maine) opposite-field solo shot down the right field line.
They tacked on another in the second thanks to Danny MacDougall's (Taunton, Mass.) RBI single through the left side of the infield, scoring James Benestad (Northborough, Mass.) from second.
After Connolly held the Golden Bears down with another quality start, the Gulls took a 7-2 advantage into the bottom of the seventh and received some late insurance to secure the victory. Elijah Moses (Haverhill, Mass.) drove in a pair with a double shot into the left-center field gap, and Nicolas Notarangelo (Taunton, Mass.) followed suit with a two run single through the right side of the infield to put the Gulls up 11-2.
With the bases loaded and two away in the top of the ninth, Joey Frammartino (North Reading, Mass.) cemented the win with an impressive running catch in the right-center field gap, buttoning up the 11-3 victory.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Endicott is 29-24 all-time against Western New England.
- After his 3-for-5, two RBI performance today, MacDougall has notched 11 hits and 14 runs over the last five games.
- O'Neil and Liponis have each homered in back-to-back games.
- Connolly's three wins this season are a career-high.
- Liponis leads the Gulls with a .360 batting average this season.
WHAT'S NEXT
No. 1 Endicott (13-1, 2-0 CCC) welcomes Suffolk to North Field tomorrow for a 3:30 PM first pitch. WNE (6-8, 0-2 CCC) travels to Amherst on Wednesday for a 3:30 PM contest.
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(Photo Credit - Kaeli Talora '25)
