Down by five runs with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Johnson & Wales sent the tying run to the plate twice but eventually fell to Suffolk, 7-5, in their double-elimination Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament game at the Scotts Miracle-Gro Athletic Complex last night.

The Rams (15-16) now advance to the tournament's winner's bracket final on Saturday at 1pm at Holman Stadium in Nashua, N.H., where they will face the GNAC's regular-season champion, St. Joseph's College.  The Monks roared past Lasell in their matchup earlier in the afternoon.  The Wildcats and Lasell will square off in an elimination game at 10am on Saturday.

Suffolk broke from a 2-2 tie in the top of the fourth as Brady Chant (Fr., Warwick, R.I.) singled and eventually scored on a passed ball.  The Rams then parlayed singles by Drew Carter (Jr., Newburyport, Mass.) and B.J. Neil (So., Lynnfield, Mass.), three sacrifice bunts, a hit batsman, and two Johnson & Wales errors to score two more runs in the sixth to take a 5-2 lead.

First baseman J.C. Collette (Sr., Amerbury, Mass.) launched a two-run, eighth-inning  double to the right field fence to score Julian Plana (Jr., Miami, Fla.), and John LaPolla (Jr., Providence, R.I.), who had walked to increase the lead to five.

With one down in the ninth, Johnson & Wales shortstop Lou Umberto (So., Cranston, R.I.) and rightfielder Rob Bocchetti (Sr., East Meadow, N.Y.) singled off reliever Dave Apostolides (Fr., Peabody, Mass.).  Umberto scored on a double by senior Kory Ferullo (Rochester, N.H.) to make it a 7-3 game.  Bocchetti made it a three-run game when designated hitter Andrew Hunton (Jr., Monroe, N.Y.) doubled to left.  Ferullo then crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Sanabria (So., Pawtucket, R.I.), the first Wildcat to represent the tying run.  Tom Elkow (Jr., Morganville, N.J.) laced a pinch-hit single to again put the tying run at the plate, but Cal Carroll  (Jr., Methuen, Mass.) induced a harmless fly ball to end the Wildcat uprising and the game.  Carroll earned his third save of the year. 

Frank Tierney (Sr., Hyde Park, Mass.) worked six quality innings to earn the win for the Rams.  The 5'10" righty struck out five and kept five hits well-scattered.  His only difficulty came in the bottom of the third, when the Wildcats tied the game, 2-2.  Bocchetti singled, moved to third on a Ferullo double, and scored on the first of Sanabria's two sacrifice flies.  Ferullo later scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

Eight of the nine Suffolk position players had at least one hit.  Chant, Neil, and shortstop Adam Johnson (Sr., Georgetown, Mass.) had two hits apiece.  Chant, a former teammate of the Wildcats' Umberto, plated Carter with the first run of the game in the top of the second, when he singled to left.  Plata then scored Johnson with a ground ball to second off Wildcat ace Jake Marchessault (Jr., Wyoming, R.I.), who saw his record fall to 2-3. 

Ferullo, who reached base safely five times, had three hits, as did Bocchetti.  Umberto had two.