Baseball Cruises Past Rivier, 12-2, in Game 1

BOSTON – The Suffolk baseball team hit its way to a 12-2 victory over GNAC rival Rivier Sunday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park to move to 3-0 against conference competition. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 12, Rivier 2
RECORDS: Suffolk (9-6, 3-0 GNAC) | Rivier (1-14, 0-3 GNAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
A ground-rule double from Brady Chant led off the game with the junior advancing to third on a wild pitch. A ground out by Seth Coiley brought in the runner and quickly gave the Rams the advantage.

Suffolk added two more runs in the top of the fourth. A single from Coiley was followed by two consecutive base on balls to put all the ducks in the pond. Luke Ronchi's skipping single to left field plated Coiley and Matt Brenner, who walked, to push the blue-and-gold's edge to 3-0.

The Rams grabbed a four-run advantage in next inning with Brenner sending an single through the middle to bring in Chant, who opened the frame with a single through the left side.

Rivier ended the shutout in the bottom of the sixth with the Raiders scoring its lone run of the day.

Suffolk put the game away with eight runs in the top of the seventh to put the Raiders in a 10-run deficit, 11-1. Cameron opened the hit-a-thon before Coiley barreled a triple to right center to score the base runner. Brenner contributed with a RBI single, before Rivier made a change on the mound. The fresh arm was no match for the Rams, however, as they loaded the bases to set up BJ Neil. The senior second baseman was the second straight player in blue-and-gold to draw a walk in the inning, and scored a run in the process. From there, Kevin Higgins rocked a three RBI triple to right center to push the score 11-1, before a Raiders error gave the Rams a 12-1 tally.

With two outs on the board, Rivier brought a single run in the final inning for the final 12-2 tally.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Ronchi had a perfect day at the plate, going 4-for-4 for two RBI and one run scored.
• Brenner put together a 2-for-3 outing with a pair of RBI and runs with Chant, Coiley and Higgins all contributing 2-for-4 efforts at the dish.
• Higgins led the way in RBI with three to go with one run scored with Coiley contributing two.

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Chuck Gibson dealt a complete-game two-run (one earned), six-hit, six-strikeout day to remain unbeaten on the hill, moving to 3-0 in his senior season.
• Ryan Schafer suffered the setback. Through 6.0 innings, he gave up seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits and sat down a pair of hitters.
• Brennan Reeves and Marcus Ferdinand came on in relief for the Raiders.

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk starts the GNAC action 3-0 for the first time since 2015 and second time under Anthony Del Prete. 

POST-GAME PIC