Tufts Defeats Baseball, 8-4

EAST BOSTON – Suffolk baseball fell behind early and never worked its way back as Tufts took down the Rams, 8-4, Tuesday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 4 | Tufts 8
RECORDS: Suffolk (21-13-1) | Tufts (21-5)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Tufts went through the order and then some in the top of the first to jump out to a 6-0 advantage after its first time at the plate.  

Suffolk wasted no time to chip away at the deficit with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first frame. A bases loaded balk allowed the first Rams' runner of the day come in before Tim Brigham's ground out to second scored Blase Cormier, who walked, to cut the margin to four.  

Ben Isaak sliced the distance in half for Suffolk in the second stanza. The sophomore placed a deep ball on the fair side of the right field line to bring in Connor Troio, who opened in the inning with a base hit and reached scoring position on Nik San Antonio's walk. 

The score stayed the same until the top of the fifth. After Steven Rossi's day on the bump was done,Michael Muscarella took over for his classmate and faced a first and third situation. A Jumbo stolen base put runners on second and third and back-to-back wild pitches allowed Tufts to regain a five-run cushion, 8-3. 

Another stand still ensued until the bottom of the eighth. With one out the Rams juiced the bags. Tufts attempted to turn the double play on Isaak at bat, but the third baseman beat the throw to first and Troio scored on the play to cut the visitor's cushion in half, 8-4.  

Ryan Garton came out of the pen in the top of the ninth for the blue-and-gold and took care of business to keep the four-run game intact. The Rams' bats could not rally around Brigham's base hit, however, and the score held in the Jumbos' favor.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Rossi fell for the first time in his collegiate career after giving up eight runs on eight hits and four walks with one strikeout in 4.1 innings. 
• Tyler Zell (2.0 IP, 1K), Worth Walrod (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 1K), Muscarella (0.2 IP), and Garton (1.0 IP, 1 BB) all came out of the pen for the Rams. 
• The Jumbos used a handful of hurlers as well with R.J. Hall earning the win in 3.0 innings of scoreless relief with one hit allowed and three punchouts on his stat line. 
• Spencer Langdon started on the hill for the visitors and allowed two runs on two hits and one walk over the first frame.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Isaak led the way at the plate with a 3-for-6 performance with two RBI and one run scored. 
• Brigham brought in one run and recorded a pair of hits. 
• Troio tallied two hits and two runs. 
• Hopkins had two hits. 
• Cormier walked twice and scored one run.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Isaak recorded a career-high three hits.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

COMING UP
Suffolk starts a hectic stretch Thursday, April 25 when it welcomes UMass Dartmouth to East Boston Memorial Park for a 4 p.m. non-conference battle.