Trinity Baseball Opens New Season With Sweep Of UMass-Boston
Auburndale, Fla. - The Trinity College Bantams baseball team took advantage of a seven-run fifth for a 10-4 victory and a nine-run first for a 13-11 win in a doubleheader sweep over the University of Massachusetts-Boston Beacons today at Myrtle Lake Park in the RussMatt Invitational. The Beacons fall to 0-4 on the season, while the defending NCAA Champion Bantams open their season at 2-0.
Trailing, 2-1, in the top of the fifth inning, Trinity junior OF Matt Sullivan (North Reading, Mass.) cracked a double, senior co-captain C Sean Killeen (Greenfield, Mass.) drew a walk, and junior 1B Kent Graham (Longmeadow, Mass.) tied the game with an run-scoring double to left. Junior OF James Wood (Windham, N.H.) worked a walk to load the bases and set up a booming grand slam homer to left field off the bat of senior co-captain 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Maine) to give the Bantams a 6-2 advantage. Trinity scored twice more in the inning and tacked on two more runs in the sixth when Killeen drew a leadoff walk and trotted home on a home run to left by Graham for a 10-2 lead.
Junior righty Jeremiah Bayer (Greenfield, Mass.) earned the victory for Trinity, allowing four runs (two earned) on eight hits and a pair of walks through six innings, while striking out six. Sophomore lefty Andrew LeBrun (Stoneham, Mass.) suffered the loss for the Beacons, yielding eight runs on nine hits and four walks to go with a pair of strikeouts in four and two-thirds innings of work.
Mass Boston opened the scoring in game two on a run-scoring ground out from sophomore right fielder Tim Fontaine (Worcester, Mass.), but the Bantams put up nine runs in the bottom of the frame, keyed by Killeen with a run-scoring single and a two-run triple in the inning. Wood crushed a two-run triple and juniors Jack Abbott (Longmeadow, Mass.) and Stephan Bernstorf (Cockeysville, Md.) each contributed with RBI singles. Trinity scored four more times in the third to take a 13-1 advantage, but the Beacons battled back with a pair of runs in the fifth on a two-run double by Fontaine and an eight-run explosion in the sixth inning to pull to within 13-11 of the defending champs. Junior Jason Simoni (Old Saybrook, Conn.) preserved the win with a scoreless ninth, despite loading the bases for Trinity.
Freshman James Ramsey (Belmont, Mass.) picked up the win for Trinity, going five innings and allowing three runs on three hits and five walks, while fanning four, while junior southpaw Alex Simas (Wareham, Mass.) was saddled with the loss for Mass,-Boston after giving up 13 runs (seven earned) on 11 hits and three walks in two and a third innings pitched to go with two strikeouts. Killeen and Piacentini each collected three hits and knocked in four runs for the Bantams.
