SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – After winning the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) baseball championship, Endicott College has swept the final CCC baseball weekly awards, which were announced Tuesday by the conference office and commissioner Gregg M. Kaye.
Junior outfielder Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) was named CCC Player of the Week, senior Brendan Pittsley (Plympton, Mass.) earned Pitcher of the Week honors and Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) was named Rookie of the Week for the third time this season.
Gold batted .480 (12-for-25) in Endicott's 5-1 week, which included a 12-3 victory over Western New England in the 2013 CCC Baseball Championship. In the championship game, Gold recorded his best performance of the week, going 4-for-6 from the plate (.667) with a double and three runs scored for the Gulls. In Endicott's 13-0 triumph over Salve Regina, Gold recorded three hits including a triple, and crossed the plate twice. Gold also knocked a clutch two-run triple in the Gulls 5-1 victory over Roger Williams. He belted a homerun and drove in three runs in a 13-1 victory over Curry. On the week, Gold scored nine runs, stole four bases, tallied two triples, and one homerun.
Pittsley earned the win in two of the three final games for Endicott's CCC Championship run, including the 12-3 victory in the championship win over Western New England. In an elimination game on Saturday against Roger Williams, Pittsley (6-0) tossed eight innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts and earned the 5-1 victory. He then came on to induce the final out of the fourth inning and worked the fifth allowing only one run to win in the title game against the Golden Bears.
Paola helped spark the Gulls to their first CCC Baseball Championship victory since 2006 with four multi-hit games, while recording a .348 (8-for-23) batting average on the week. In the CCC Baseball Championship, Paola put the Gulls ahead in the top of the first inning with a two run single. In the team's 13-0 victory in an elimination game against Salve Regina, Paola tallied two hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Paola's best performance of the CCC Baseball Tournament came in the team's 13-1 triumph over Curry, in which he recorded two hits including a double and a homerun, while driving in two runs, and crossing the plate three times. For the week, Paola scored six runs, tallied three extra base hits including a homerun, drove in six runs, and had an on-base-percentage of .444.
Endicott (32-12) has earned the CCC's automatic qualifier into the NCAA New England Division III baseball regional. The other teams and the schedule for the qualifier, which takes place in Harwich, Mass. and starts on May 5th, will be announced at the end of next weekend.
