BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott baseball team opened up its 2016 season on Monday evening with an 8-6 victory over Salem State University at North Field.

JJ Branch (Milford, Mass.) earned the win (1-0) on six innings pitched (83 pitches), four hits, one run (earned), a walk, and a game-high six strikeouts. Nick Quattro (Canton, Conn.) closed out the final three innings, and also tied Branch in the strikeout department, to earn his fourth save of his career.

Salem State starter Will Twiss (Middleton, Mass.) suffered the loss on three innings pitched, four hits, three runs (all earned), one walk, and three punchouts.

In the top of the first inning, the Vikings struck first when Alex Toomey (Beverly, Mass.) roped an RBI double down the left field line to plate Mac Daniel Singleton (Everett, Mass.), but the Gulls responded with six runs over the next four innings to take a 6-1 lead.

Josh Drew (Intervale, N.H.) lined a two-run single to the right-center gap in the second, while Anthony Serina (Portsmouth, R.I.) brought home Michael DeDonato (Chelmsford, Mass.) in the third with a sac fly to right field to grab a 3-1 advantage.

In the fourth, Corbin Hyde (Lewiston, Maine) deposited an opposite field two-run home run over the left-center field fence to make it 5-1, before Brad Rebello (Bellingham, Mass.) delivered an RBI single through the right side of the infield for a 6-1 lead.

The Gulls tacked on single runs in the seventh and eighth innings which proved to be the difference as Salem State rallied for two runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth. Despite the late comeback effort from the Vikings, Quattro shut the door on Endicott's first win of the season in the ninth with a strikeout looking against Dan Connors (Danvers, Mass.), who represented the tying run at the plate.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls are 3-2 in season openers since 2012.
• Despite the loss, Salem State holds a 15-10-2 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to 1998.
• As a team, Endicott hit for the cycle by compiling nine singles, two doubles, one triple, and one home run for 13 hits total.
• Serina and Mike Kochiss (Fairfield, Conn.) both notched doubles, while Rebello collected a triple to go along with Hyde's two-run shot.
• Quattro registered his first career three-inning save in today's game.
• DeDonato finished his night going 3-for-4 with two runs and a walk out of the leadoff spot in the lineup.
• Rebello and Kochiss both had multi-hit games.

FOR THE FOES

• Toomey went 3-for-5 and knocked in a game-high four runs, which included a two-run triple down the right field line in the eighth inning.
• Singleton had the only other multi-hit game for the Vikings as the junior shortstop went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
• Richard Fecteau (Newbury, Mass.) knocked in a pair of runs with a double to right-center in the ninth before Toomey made it an 8-6 contest with his RBI base knock.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (1-0) opens up its spring break trip to Florida with a doubleheader against Franklin & Marshall on Sunday, March 13 at 9:30 a.m. at Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, Florida. Salem State (0-1) hosts Suffolk University tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. 

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