Top-seeded Ravens belt five more home runs, including two from Ingui, to defeat fourth-seeded Caldwell, 16-4

RINDGE, N.H. (May 17, 2008) – Top-seeded and host Franklin Pierce University, ranked 14th in this week’s pingbaseball.com Division II poll and 21st in the Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings, has reached the regional championship round for the fourth-straight year after rolling to a 16-4 victory over fourth-seeded Caldwell College in game seven of the 2008 NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Championships at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field tonight..

Franklin Pierce’s (42-12) opponent will be determined in Sunday’s first game (Game 9) between Caldwell (34-18) and second-seeded Bryant University (41-20). Bryant posted a 16-4 victory to eliminate fifth-seeded Dowling College (29-19) in tonight’s final game. Dowling also fell to Caldwell, 7-3, in the completion of the game suspended in the third inning last night.

Due to Sunday afternoon and evening’s rain forecast, the schedule has been pushed up two hours. Caldwell’s and Bryant will play at noon, with the championship round to start at 3:30 p.m. The Ravens, who will need to be beaten twice, are seeking their third-straight regional championship.

Franklin Pierce continued to swing hot bats, belting five more home runs tonight to run its total in the regional to 12 over the three wins. Freshman Derek Ingui (Sterling, Mass./Wachusett Regional) hit two of the Ravens homers in the contest and finished 3-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored and four RBI.

“We’re hitting the ball real well,” said Franklin Pierce head coach Jayson King. “Once we get a few guys hot it gets contagious. Hopefuilly we can keep it going.”

Senior Kevin Renaud (Southbridge, Mass./Southbridge) also hit 2-for-5, adding a double, home run, three runs scored and five RBI. Sophomore Kevin Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) batted 2-for-4 with a home run, stolen base and three RBI, while grad student Jake Christman (Newton, Mass./Newton South) finished 2-for-4 with a home run, three runs scored and two RBI. Junior preseason All-American Scott Savastano (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) chipped in with two doubles.

Sophomore righthander Kyle Vazquez (Berlin, Conn./Berlin) earned his seventh win of the season (7-1), allowing four earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and no walks over eight innings. He settled down after allowing four runs through four innings to retire 14 of the last 16 batters he faced, including the final seven-straight, over the rest of his outing.

“(Vazquez) threw his best game today with three good pitches and settled in against a good hitting team,” said King. “I thought he really performed his best today.”

Freshman Gabriel Molina (Bronx, N.Y./Monroe) led Caldwell’s offense, hitting 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. Sophomore Omar Velazquez (Astoria, N.Y./Long Island City) was 2-for-4 with a run scored, while senior Chris Chiarappa (Elmont, N.Y./Holy Trinity) chipped in with an RBI.

Junior righthander Eric Hines (Milltown, N.J./Spotswood) suffered the loss on the mound for the Cougars (5-2), surrendering nine runs, all earned, on nine hits and a walk with no strikeouts over 3.2 innings.

Franklin Pierce wasted little time gaining an advantage in the contest as Renaud drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the game, and after Hines started out Ingui with a ball, the freshman belted Hines’ first strike of the game over the hitter’s backdrop in center to put the Ravens up 2-0.

“I knew (after five-straight balls) the pitcher was going to want to get one over for a strike,” said Ingui. “I was basically looking for a straight fastball, ended up getting it and put a good swing on it.”

Caldwell got one of those runs back in the home half as its first two batters singled. Senior Tommy Murphy (Monroe, N.Y./Washingtonville), who led off with an infield single, scored when Chiarappa reached on a fielder’s choice.

Franklin Pierce homered three times in an eight-run fourth that appeared to break the game open. All of the damage was done after Hines got the first two Raven batters out in the inning. However, two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases for Renaud, who cleared the bags with a double high off the wall in center. Ingui followed with his second homer of the game (sixth of the season), a two-run shot to put the hosts up 6-1. After Savastano was hit by a pitch, Rivers connected on his sixth home run of the postseason (seventh of the season). Anderson gave the Ravens their third-straight hit beyond the fence, with a solo shot, to left center to complete the scoring in the frame.

Caldwell kept within striking distance in the home half as Molina followed up back to back singles to lead off the inning with a three-run homer to right (second of the regional). After a quick conference at the mound, Vazquez would retire the next seven batters in a row to start his run of 14 of 16 retired batters over his final 4.2 innings of work.

“I got off to a slow start with some mechanical things,” said Vazquez. I left some balls up, but I made a couple adjustments and was fine once I got comfortable out there. It makes it a lot easier to pitch when you’re up as many runs as we have been lately.”

Franklin Pierce busted the game open with a four-run eighth and two more in the ninth. Renaud followed a one-out single through the right side with his sixth home run of the season to left center. Rivers later added a sacrifice fly that scored Ingui, who reached with an infield single. In the ninth, sophomore Matt Skeffington (Auburn, N.H./Pendleton) singled up the middle before Christman belted his first home run of the season to right to round out the scoring.

“We’re playing the best we have all season right now,” said Ingui. “It’s the perfect time to hit our stride and we are in a pretty good position right now.”