The Assumption University baseball team saw its conference postseason run come to an end at the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament against Southern New Hampshire. After forcing a winner-take-all championship game by earning a 4-3 victory over the Penmen, the Greyhounds dropped the second matchup of the day between the schools by a 13-4 decision.
Southern New Hampshire earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while Assumption will anxiously await to see if its resume is good enough for a spot in the annual national postseason event. The Greyhounds have seven wins against teams that entered conference championship week regionally ranked, which included victories against Franklin Pierce, Le Moyne, and Southern New Hampshire over the past five days.
Game One: Assumption 4, Southern New Hampshire 3
Needing to win twice to hoist the trophy by advancing out of the loser's bracket, Assumption was able to force a decisive final game by getting another outstanding performance on the mound by junior Jack Choate (North Grafton, Mass.) along with late-inning heroics from classmate Christopher Rabias (Chelmsford, Mass.)
Choate and Southern New Hampshire's Taylor Lepard squared off as starters and did not allow any runs to cross the plate. Choate pitched six scoreless innings in which he did not surrender a hit while striking out seven and issuing just one walk, while Lepard countered with seven scoreless frames in which he gave up six hits, registered 12 strikeouts, and issued just one walk.
But with the game needing to be decided by the bullpens, it was Assumption that came through offensively by pushing all four of its runs across in the top of the eighth inning. A defensive error by Penman second baseman Nick Sheehan allowed Greyhound junior Emilio Acosta (Cromwell, Conn.) to score the first run, and three batters later, Rabias blasted a three-run homer to left field to put the Greyhounds comfortably in control.
Southern New Hampshire, however, did not go down without swinging for the fences and nearly came back by rocketing two home runs over the high fences in right and center field. Sam Henrie hit a solo shot to put the Penmen on the board before Dakota Mulcay shot out a two-run homer following a walk that was issued to Nick Schwartz.
Despite the valiant comeback effort, it would all fall just short as freshman Alexander Meesig (Nashua, N.H.) came on in relief to close the door. Meesig recorded a strikeout and induced a groundout to third to end the game.
Senior Patrick Harrington (Bedford, N.H.) earned the victory for Assumption and improved to 6-4 by firing 1.2 innings in which he gave up two hits and three runs that were all earned. Meesig picked up his third save for recording the final two outs. George Welch, meanwhile, was tagged with the loss for Southern New Hampshire and moved to 2-1 after recording one out and surrendering a run.
Game Two: Southern New Hampshire 13, Assumption 4
Southern New Hampshire's bats that lit up in the ninth inning of the first game caught fire in the winner-take-all championship match, as the team got a three-run homer from Mulcay in the bottom of the first and never looked back.
Assumption quickly responded and made it a one-run game when Eric Preston homered following a single by Jack Barry, but the top-seeded Penmen answered back with 10 straight to put the game out of reach. Southern New Hampshire scored four times during a wild third inning and saw I Taveras go yard in the fifth during the stretch en route to winning their fourth Northeast-Conference title overall in program history.
Griffin Gilbert earned the win and ended the day with a 3-1 record by throwing six strong innings of relief in which he gave up just two hits, two runs that were unearned for Southern New Hampshire (41-9). He struck out 12 and issued only two walks. Corey Chiappone suffered the loss and dropped to 0-3 after yielding eight hits and seven runs that were all earned in 2.1 frames.
Following the final match of the day, Shea Ryan and Choate were named to the all-championship team for their performances on the mound. Ryan threw a no-hitter on Thursday against Le Moyne, while Choate threw a combined 15 shutout innings over two starts in which he allowed just one hit and registered 25 strikeouts against three walks. Choate also broke the school's single season strikeout record in the process.
Assumption (25-23), which has nine seniors on its roster, will now wait to see if its recent success and overall resume is good enough for a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will air on NCAA.com on Sunday evening at 10 p.m.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up