Trinity Baseball Wins NESCAC Championship On Killeen's Late Grand Slam

Williamstown, Mass. - Senior co-captain Sean Killeen (Greenfield, Mass.) hit two homeruns, including an eighth inning grand slam to give the Trinity College Bantams a 7-3 victory over the Tufts University Jumbos in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) baseball championship finals this morning at Bobby Coombs Field. Trinity, ranked No. 6 in the nation, improves to 29-5 with their second consecutive NESCAC championship title, while the Jumbos fall to 19-19.

Tufts jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning behind three hits including two doubles before Trinity starter, sophomore Andrew Janiga (Ellington, Conn.), would settle in, allowing just two hits and one run over the next four innings of work. The Bantams trailed 3-0 when Janiga left the game in the sixth, but the offense would eventually heat up on a cold and windy day, giving the Bantams yet another clutch come-from behind win.

The Jumbos, who sent five different pitchers to the mound for no more than two innings apiece, were able to keep the Trinity offense off balance until the bottom of the sixth, when senior co-captain Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Me.) took advantage of a dropped foul ball, and doubled to the wall before freshman Kevin Mortimer (Spencer, Mass.) would bring Piacentini home with a line drive single to center.

The Bantams, who left twelve runners on base, then got a 400-ft. center field solo homerun from Killeen an inning later, one of his four hits and five RBI on the day, to cut the Tufts lead to 3-2. Killeen's five RBI and two homeruns both tie a NESCAC championship tournament single-game record, each shared by three others.

Trinity, trailing 3-2 after seven, loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth after sophomore Kevin Collins (Easton, Conn.) reached on an error, junior Stephen Bernstorf (Cockeysville, Md.) singled, and junior Jack Abbott (Longmeadow, Mass.) executed a perfect bunt down the third base line. Junior Matt Sullivan (North Reading, Mass.) walked to force in the tying run, setting the table for Killeen who delivered in a big way, as the catcher muscled a grand-slam homerun through a stiff breeze down the left field line to give the Bantams a 7-3 lead.

Sophomore Connor O'Sullivan Pierce (Cambridge, Mass.), who relieved Janiga in the sixth, found himself in a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, after sophomore David Orlowitz (Wakefield, Mass.), sophomore David Leresche (St. Louis, MO) and junior Nate Bankoff (Lynnfield, Mass.) reached base to put the tying run at the plate for the Jumbos with just one out.  O'Sullivan-Pierce, who was a victim of two errors in the inning, escaped the jam unscathed as the Bantams clinched their third NESCAC Championship in school history, a league record.

O'Sullivan-Pierce pitched four strong innings, allowing just two hits and striking out three for the win. Janiga and O'Sullivan-Pierce overcame eight Trinity errors in the field to allow just one earned run and two unearned runs combined. Tufts starter senior Mike Stefaniak (Needham, Mass.), sophomore Derek Miller (Whitman, Mass.) and freshman Chris DeGoti (Miami, Fl.) combined for five shutout innings and five strikeouts to highlight the Jumbos pitching staff.

Junior James Wood (Windham, N.H.) reached base four times for the Bantams. Sophomore Chase Rose (Acottsdale, Az.) and freshman Sam Sager (Cranston, R.I.) collected two hits apiece to lead the Jumbos offensively.

With th win, the defending National Champion Trinity College Bantams earn an automatic bid to the 2009 Division III NCAA tournament, the time and location to be determined.

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