Baseball Topples MIT, 13-6, to Get 75th Season Started

EAST BOSTON – The Suffolk baseball team hit early and often to open its 75th campaign with a 13-6 victory over MIT, Tuesday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 13 | MIT 6
RECORDS: Suffolk (1-0) | MIT (0-4)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
The blue-and-gold bats got going early as the host scored three in the opening inning. Back-to-back triples from Joe Ward and Marc Birbiglia put a pair of runs up. Ward scored Christian Seariac, who reached base on a walk, and came in on Birbiglia's hit good for three bags. Luke Harder's two-out single to short plated Birbiglia to make a 3-0 Suffolk game after one complete inning. 

 MIT got those runs back to start the second and a fresh ball game stood at 3-all in the middle of the second. The Rams bats came alive once again in their second turn at the dish. Suffolk scored eight runs on seven hits and two errors to make things lopsided in its favor, 11-3.  

The offensive output came thanks to the Engineers switch on the hill as Matt Leonard took over for starter Casey Bussone. Leonard was no match for Suffolk's swings as the Rams cycled through the line-up. Birbiglia collected two RBI in the scoring stretch that also saw Blase Cormier, Harder, Harry Painter, Steven Shamnoski and Seariac bring in one run apiece.  

Scoring hit a stand still on both sides until the top of the fifth. The Engineers started to figure out Steven Rossi and managed to get back three runs to trim the deficit down to five, 11-6. 

 Shawn Nosky took over for Rossi on the rubber in a bases loaded, one-out jam. The junior quickly secured the second out of the stanza as Cory O'Shea went down swinging. Kyle Sonandres gave the right-handed hurler some trouble though. Sonandres worked a full count before the Rams' defense backed up the Dedham, Massachusetts local with a ground out to third to keep the five-run edge for Suffolk.  

Insurance came for the Rams in the bottom of the eighth. With two ducks in the pond, Seariac emptied the bases with a deep single to right to pad the margin to seven, 13-6. Shane Lake and Jonny Gilbride each wore a pitch to start the frame. Michael James Jr. replaced Lake on first before Gilbride's at bat. From there, the graduate student and sophomore each advanced thanks to Garret Roberts' ground out to second to set-up Seariac's RBIs.  

Nick Reiser handled matters in the ninth from the hill. He secured all three outs with swinging strikeouts to lock up the win.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Nosky logged the win with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. He gave up just one hit to the 10 batters he faced and fanned four. 
• Rossi started and saw 25 hitters over 4.1 innings. He sat down three and walked four.
• Reiser came in to close the final two frames. The freshman kept both scoreless as he struck out half of the 10 batters he saw.  
• MIT used six different arms in the outing. 
• In the start, Bussone gave up three runs, all earned, on five hits and one walk, in the first inning.
• Leonard suffered the setback after allowing eight runs, six earned, on seven hits in 0.2 innings of work. 
• Ethan Siegel proved to be the most effective with 3.1 scoreless innings with five Ks, three walks and one hit.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Suffolk's 15 hits were scattered around nine bats. 
• Harder led the way with a 3-for-4 effort that included a double. The junior brought in two runs, scored one himself and drew one base-on-balls. 
• Birbiglia and Seariac each tallied three RBI, scored twice and had two hits. 
• Cormier and Painter both chipped in two hits, one RBI and one run scored. 
• Gilbride scored twice to go along with his one hit.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk opened its schedule in New England for the third straight season, fourth time under Anthony Del Prete. 
• The Rams won their first game of the year for the first time since taking down Albion, 7-3, to begin the 2018 campaign. 
• Suffolk and MIT met in the blue-and-gold's season debut for the first time. 
• The Rams bested the Engineers for the first time since April 8, 2011. 
• The triumph over MIT is the first in the Del Prete era. 
• The 11 runs scored by Suffolk against MIT are the most since the Rams put up 15 on the board in a 15-8 victory over the Engineers in 1985. 
• Birbiglia set a new career-high in RBI (3) and matched a personal-best in hits (2) and runs scored (2).  
• Birbiglia hit the first triple of his Suffolk career.  
• Harder recorded a personal-high three hits. 
• Nosky matched a career-high four strikeouts. 
• Gilbride, Max Iorio, Dylan January, Painter, Reiser, Roberts and Ward all made their Suffolk debuts.  

POST-GAME PIC
 

COMING UP
Suffolk is scheduled to be back in Eastie tomorrow, Wednesday, March 9 in a rescheduled outing against Lasell. The Rams and Lasers are scheduled for a 3 p.m. midweek match.