Box Score Sophomore Pete Rosa (Ambler, Pa.) helped lead the Wildcats to an 8-4 victory against Mass.-Maritime in a non-conference contest at Commodore Hendy Field on Thursday afternoon.
JWU trailed 4-3 heading into their final at-bat, but Rosa evened matters at 4-4 with a one-out RBI single before senior Bryan Sayers (Chelmsford, Mass.) plated the go-ahead run after being hit by a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded. Rosa scored on a passed ball to extend Johnson & Wales' lead to 6-4, and a two-run single off the bat of senior Mike Murphy (Pawtucket, R.I.) capped the rally for the visitors, who overcame a pair of one-run deficits in the late innings.
Murphy's RBI single in the top of the fourth gave the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead, but the host Buccaneers evened matters in the fifth on a run-scoring groundout off the bat of sophomore Tyler Genereux (Duxbury, Mass.) and took a 2-1 advantage in the sixth on an RBI groundout by freshman Ben Maher (Plymouth, Mass.). Rosa gave Johnson & Wales a 3-2 edge in the top of the seventh by blasting a two-run homer, his second of the season, but Massachusetts Maritime again tied things in the bottom of the frame when senior Michael Vargas (Framingham, Mass.) stole home. The hosts took a 4-3 lead in the eighth on Maher's two-out RBI single, but the Wildcats used three hits and a pair of Buccaneer errors to plate their deciding rally in the ninth.
Murphy joined Rosa with two hits and three RBI in the triumph for Johnson & Wales, which also received three hits from sophomore Zach Boyes (West Warwick, R.I.) while freshman Alex Pezzuto (Hastings, N.Y.) was 2-for-3 with two runs scored in the win for JWU. Junior Marc Sommerhalter (Emerson, N.J.), the sixth Wildcat pitcher of the afternoon, improved to 4-0 with two innings of relief work, allowing just one run on three hits.
With the win Johnson & Wales improves to 13-9-1 overall while Massachusetts Maritime falls to 7-6 on the season. The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday, April 9th when they host Suffolk in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference double header, starting at Noon.
