March 28, 2004
(Beverly, MA) Anna Maria's Dave Bunten pitched an outstanding ball game lasting 13 innings and weathering three Endicott comebacks to win a thriller, 7-5, in the second game of the Endicott/Anna Maria double-header.
Despite striking out 28 times in the game, Anna Maria got timely hits to earn the victory. The Amcats took an early lead with a run in the first and fourth off Endicott starter Matt Bishop to go up 2-0. Endicott finally answered in the fifth with two to tie it. With two outs, Endicott put together four consective hits by Brendan Tiani, Dustin Aiguier, Dave Babiarz and Mike Lucas for the two runs.
The pitchers took over in until the tenth inning without so much as a threat mounted on either side. Endicott's Matt Bishop was lifted after 8 complete innings of work allowing 2 runs, 17 strik outs and 2 walks. Ian McCarthy pitched a scoreless ninth but found trouble in the 10th when he made one of EC's three errors that brought in two AMC runs. The Gulls would not go quietly however. They tied the score in the bottom of the 10th on a Brendan Tiani single, a Dave Babiarz triple and a Mike Lucas squeeze bunt. Jason Carter made his second appearance of the day, relieving McCarthy in the 11th. He was flawless again, but found trouble in the 12th. With two outs Endicott made two more errors on two routine ground balls that allowed one AMC hit to score a run. Endicott answered again an almost won with the third out being made at home plate. With one out, Tiani tripled. With two outs Babiarz doubled him in. Mike Lucas followed with an infield single to shallow right field. The second baseman dove to his left, made the play to first too late to get Lucas, but the first baseman alertly cut down Babiarz at home who never stopped running from second and was out on a "bang-bang" play at the plate.
Ian Parkinson took over for Carter in the 13th and surrendered the winning runs on two hits, one error and sacrifice squeeze bunt. The Gulls could not muster anything in the bottom half to end the game at two hours and fifty minutes. The loss drops Endicott to 6-8 and 2-2 in the CCC. Anna Maria is 1-2 and 1-1 in the CCC.
