BEVERLY, Mass. – In a must-win game to keep their Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) baseball tournament hopes alive, Endicott blasted three home runs and defeated Curry College 13-1 on Friday afternoon at North Field, knocking the Colonels out of the double-elimination championship.
The second-seeded Gulls (29-12) will move on to the weekend portion of the tournament, which will take place at Western New England University in Springfield. They will first meet #4 Roger Williams at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning, with the winner advancing directly to Sunday's championship round.
Catcher EJ Martinez (Brooklyn, N.Y.) went 3-for-4 with five runs batted in, and smacked a grand slam to deep center field in the fifth inning, one of three frames in which the Gulls scored four runs.
Junior center fielder Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) hit his second home run of the year, a three-run shot to right field in the third inning and freshman Matthew Paola hit his team-high third round-tripper in the bottom of the sixth, which brought home two more runs.
Sophomore second baseman Harry Oringer (Dartmouth, Mass.) was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI, while Gold had two hits and scored three times, in addition to the three RBIs on his homer.
Martinez, who also stole two of Endicott's four bases on the day, got the Gulls on the board in the second when he singled up the middle to score Gold, who had stroked a one-out base hit.
Endicott opened up proceedings a frame later with an RBI single to left by Brett Holmgren (Middleboro, Mass.), which scored Oringer all the way from first base. Paola walked to put two runners on base and set the table for Gold's big fly to right.
Paola sent a two-out double down the right field line in the fifth and Gold reached on a play that involved errors by both the Curry shortstop and third baseman. Designated hitter Eric Lemke (Southington, Conn.) drew a walk to load the bases for Martinez, who drilled a ball to straightaway center field for his first home run of the year.
The Colonels (8-24-2) grabbed their only run in top of the sixth inning when right fielder Sam Barron (Hadley, Mass.) tripled home junior shortstop Brandon Lewis (Barrington, R.I.).
Oringer singled home leadoff man Conor Ressel (Rockport, Mass.) in the bottom of that inning, then scored on an RBI double by Colin Sitarz (West Hartford, Conn.), who was on base when Paola found the grass over the right field fence.
Graduate student Mike Nich (Orange, Conn.) moved to 6-1 on the year for Endicott after allowing one run on eight hits through five innings of work. Nich struck out four batters and did not issue a walk.
Zac Poland (Essex Junction, Vt.), JJ Branch (Milford, Mass.), Corbin Hyde (Lewiston, Maine), and Michael Griffin (Arlington, Mass.) each threw one inning of scoreless relief for the Blue and Green. Together the quartet allowed just one hit and one walk and each of them struck out a single Curry batter.
The Colonels had their biggest threat in the top of the fifth inning when, trailing 5-0, they loaded the bases with nobody out on three straight singles. However, Nich picked off first baseman Tanner Givens (Hamden, Conn.) at third base and then struck out Tim Lathrop (Colchester, Conn.) and Matt Moore (Clearwater, Kan.) to get out of the jam.
Senior righty Zach Walker (Hingham, Mass.) worked the first five innings for the visitors and gave up nine runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out four. Walker was not helped by three Curry errors, and four of his runs were unearned, all of them on Martinez's grand slam when two errors prevented the end of the fifth inning.
Travis Levesque (Middleoboro, Mass.) was tagged for the final four runs on seven hits over the last three innings.
