Baseball Secures Sweep, Bests Fitchburg 10-4 in Nightcap

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Suffolk baseball swept a doubleheader for the first time this season as it put together a 10-4 game two win over Fitchburg State Saturday night at Lake Myrtle Field. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 10 | Fitchburg State 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (5-3) |Fitchburg State (2-5)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk trailed by one after two complete innings before breaking on the board in the top of the third. With two outs, Rich Gilbride singled to left to bring in Corey Frassica, who led off the inning with a walk. An error let the next run come in and Gilbride scored the third thanks to Blase Cormier's double down the left field line.  

The Rams continued to pad their cushion with multiple runs in the fourth and fifth.  

In the fourth, the scoring started once again with two dead. Ben Isaak worked his way to third on a single through the right side, wild pitch and stolen base, which let Luke Hardercollect an RBI on his single up the middle. Another Fitchburg State misplay allowed Harder to come in and stretch the margin to four, 5-1.  

An inning later, the bats got going from the get go. Cormier opened the action with a single to left and turned on his jets to cross home on Tim Brigham's double down the left field line. The blue-and-gold then chucked the bags and Harder sacrificed the second out with a deep ball to left center for the second run of the inning. 

From there Logan Heckman nearly matched Brigham's down the left field line with his own to bring in a run and a wild pitch let another one score to make it a 9-1 game.  

Fitchburg added their second run of the day in the fifth and Suffolk quickly answered with itw own run in the next half inning. Marc Birbiglia singled to left center to score Gilbride, who led off with a single to left field, to finish the scoring for Suffolk.  

The Falcons made moves to comeback in the bottom of the seventh. FSU managed to put two up after a handful of walks, an error and a single, but the Rams kept them there to secure the sweep.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Five different arms threw in a bullpen day for the Rams. 
• Reliever CJ Barrett earned the decision behind a one-hit, 2.0-inning outing. 
• Casey Sullivan started on the hill for Suffolk and let up one run on two hits and two walks in the 2.0 frames. 
• Caleb Piwnicki (1.0 IP, 1 R, 2H, 1K), Robert Shaw (1.0 IP, 1K) and Ryan Garton (1.0 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 3 BB, 1K) all came in to toss for Suffolk. 
• Fitchburg State cycled through hurlers as well.
• Taryn Laramie suffered the setback after giving up five runs, four earned, on five hits, four walks and four punchouts. 
• Richard Sharp started on the bump. He put together a one-hit inning.  

STATISTCALLY SPEAKING

• Cormier supplied a 3-for-4 effort with one double, one RBI and one run scored. 
• Gilbride recorded two hits, two runs, one RBI and one stolen base. 
• Heckman had two walks, one hit, a double, one run and one RBI. 
• Harder contributed two RBI, one hit, one run, one sac and one stolen base. 
• Birbiglia and Isaak each had one hit and one run with Birbiglia adding one RBI.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk bested Fitchburg State in back-to-back battles for the first time with Anthony Del Prete on the bench and first since taking the twinbill in the 2009 season.  
• The Rams improved to 18-6 all-time versus the Falcons. 
• Suffolk moved to 4-1 against Fitchburg State under Del Prete.
• The blue-and-gold put up 10 or more runs in two consecutive contests for the first time this season and first since downing Rivier 10-3, April 22, 2018 and a 16-5 victory at Tufts two days later. 
• Cormier had his second straight three-hit performance. He has produced three hits three times this season including back-to-back contests. 
• Frassica made his first collegiate appearance. 
• Harder stole the first base of his collegiate career.  

POST-GAME PIC
 

LOOKING AHEAD
Suffolk has the next two days off and will be back on the diamond for a doubleheader with Greenville Thursday, March 11. First pitch at Pat Thomas Stadium is set for 9:30 a.m.