East Providence, R.I. – The No. 3 seeded Johnson
& Wales University baseball team suffered a hard fought 7-4
setback against No. 1 seed Suffolk in the Final Four of the 2010
Great Northeast Athletic Conference Baseball Championship at Pierce
Field on Saturday evening. The loss eliminated JWU from the
tournament.
Suffolk took the early lead in the top of the second when an RBI
single by junior Nick Travelyn (Bedford, N.H.) put
the Rams up 1-0. Suffolk extended their lead to 2-0 in the top of
the fourth on an RBI single by freshman Chris Stanley
(Orange County, Calif.).
Johnson & Wales got on the board in the bottom of the fourth
when junior Nick Alosco
(Mahopac, N.Y.) led off with a double and scored on a
bases loaded walk by sophomore Joe Coppola
(Ridgewood, N.J.) to make the score 2-1. In the top of the
fifth, the visiting Rams went up 3-1 on an RBI single by junior
Mark Annese (Winchester, Mass.). The squad then
took the 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth when they capitalized on
a JWU error to push across an unearned run. Suffolk senior
Bobby Barrett (Milton, Mass.) notched a two-run
single in the top of the seventh to give the team the 6-1 lead. JWU
climbed back into the game in the bottom of the eighth when a pinch
hit single by junior Bryan Sayers
(Chelmsford, Mass.) scored a pair of runs to make the
score 6-4. Suffolk answered in the top of the ninth on an RBI
single by Stanley giving the team an insurance run and increasing
the lead to 7-4. The Wildcats threatened in the bottom of the ninth
when senior Jonathan Melendez (Providence, R.I.)
led off with a double. That would be as close as they would get,
however as freshman Jhonneris Mendez (Roslindale,
Mass.) retired the next three batters to record his fourth
save of the season and give Suffolk the 7-4 victory.
Melendez was 3-for-5 for Johnson & Wales while sophomore
Zach
Boyes (West Warwick, R.I.) went 2-for-3 with a run
scored in the loss for the Wildcats. Stanley went 3-for-5 with two
RBI for Suffolk while Annese was 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI in
the win for the Rams.
With the loss JWU is now 15-28 while Suffolk improves to 21-14 for
the year. Suffolk will take on No. 2 seed St. Joseph's of Maine for
the GNAC Championship at 12:00 p.m. (a second game will immediately
follow if Suffolk wins the contest). The winner receives the GNAC's
automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. JWU will
return to action on Tuesday, May 4th when they host UMass Dartmouth
in the season finale at 3:30 p.m.
