Raven rallies fall short in 6-4 loss and 9-8 (13 innings) defeat

RINDGE, N.H. (April 21, 2008) – The Franklin Pierce University baseball team, ranked eighth in this week’s pingbaseball.com Div. II poll, 11th in the latest NCBWA rankings and 13th in this week’s Collegiate Baseball magazine poll, played nearly eight hours of baseball but could not get a win against Pace University in a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader on Monday at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field. The Ravens fell in game one, 6-4, before suffering a heartbreaking 9-8 loss in 13 innings in the nightcap.

The duo of senior Jack Cawley (Bronx, N.Y./Iona Prep) and sophomore Aaron Zrenda (Niantic, Conn./Loomis Chaffee Prep) hurt the Ravens all day long, as the duo combined for nine hits, six runs batted in, five runs scored and four walks in the doubleheader. Cawley went 5-for-12 with four RBI, while Zrenda went 4-for-7 with three RBI, four runs scored and four walks in the two games.

Junior preseason All-American Scott Savastano (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) led the Ravens with a 5-for-10 doubleheader with three doubles and three runs scored while walking twice, while classmate Randy Bernosky (Port Huron, Mich./Waubonsee CC) went 2-for-8 but had a double and a home run to drive in a team-high five runs.


Pace 6, Franklin Pierce 4 (Game One)

In the front end of the doubleheader, Pace took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth and then held on to defeat Franklin Pierce, 6-4.

Junior Zach Dayton (North Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth) picked up the win (4-1) for Pace by throwing six scoreless innings, scattering three hits while striking out seven. Sophomore Frank Luongo (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) earned the save, his second of the year, by getting the final two outs of the ninth inning.

Junior All-Region righthander Mike Adams (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) suffered his first loss of the season and of his career (6-1) by giving up four runs (one earned) on five hits in seven innings of work. The junior, who struck out five and walked three in his outing, had won his first 12 collegiate decisions heading into Monday.

Franklin Pierce put the tying runs on base in the bottom of the ninth inning, but could not complete its rally. Six of the first seven batters of the frame reached for the Ravens, capped by a two-run double by Savastano that cut the deficit to 6-4 with one out. Luongo came on and walked Kevin Renaud (Southbridge, Mass./Becker College) and induced a sacrifice fly from sophomore Kevin Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) before getting senior captain Tyler Bishop (Milford, N.H./University of Tampa) to pop out with the tying runs on first and second to end the game.

Pace began the scoring with three runs in the fifth inning, beginning with a leadoff double by Zrenda. After an error and a walk loaded the bases with one out, Adams almost got out of the jam with a strikeout and a subsequent two-strike count to Cawley, but Cawley lined a 1-2 pitch just out of the reach of a leaping Savastano into left-center field to clear the bases.

The Setters added one in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Zrenda and two more key runs in the eighth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly from senior Joe Barracato (Westbury, N.Y./W.T. Clarke) and a single by junior Aaron Liscinsky (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull).


Pace 9, Franklin Pierce 8 – 13 innings (Game Two)

Game one was merely a prelude to a marathon second game, as it took nearly five hours for Pace to score three times in the top of the 13th inning and then hold off Franklin Pierce once again in the bottom of the inning to take a 9-8 win and the doubleheader sweep.

The game featured 14 pitchers who combined to throw 509 pitches, and yet the game came down to one final battle between the sixth Setter pitcher, sophomore Mackenzie King (Blairstown, N.J./North Warren Regional), and sophomore pitch-hitter Matt Skeffington (Auburn, N.H./Coastal Carolina). With the Ravens down a run and the bases loaded, King got Skeffington to swing and miss on a 2-2 off-speed pitch to complete the four-hour, 55-minute second game.

King earned his third save of the year for Zrenda (3-1), who moved from third base to the pitcher’s mound to throw 1.1 innings, giving up two unearned runs on one hit.

Pace took the lead for good with three runs in the top of the 13th inning off the Ravens’ eighth pitcher of the night, sophomore Kyle Vasquez (Berlin, Conn./Berlin). After Vasquez (5-1) struck out two of the first three batters of the frame, Cawley singled to center and Zrenda followed with a two-run double to the right-center field gap that put Pace ahead. Zrenda scored what would become a very important insurance run soon after when junior third baseman Cliff Hicks (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) made a bad throw to first on a grounder by senior Matt Rigoli (Parsippany, N.J./Parsippany) that got by Bernosky.

Franklin Pierce got two of the three runs back in a dramatic bottom of the 13th, but in the end fell one clutch hit short. The Ravens had two on and two out when junior Steve Carr (Nahant, Mass./Lake City CC) pinch hit and flared a broken-bat pop up between the third baseman and the pitcher to load the bases and keep the Ravens alive. Hicks and Bernosky both worked bases-loaded walks to heighten the drama, but Skeffington struck out to finally end the game.

The game headed into extra innings thanks to a monster home run in the bottom of the eighth inning by Bernosky, who launched a ball well over the left-center field fence with one out in the inning. The Ravens had a chance to win the game later in the frame, as junior Ryan Copp (Cumberland, Maine/University of Maine) singled and was waved home on a double to right field by freshman Derek Ingui (Sterling, Mass./Wachusett Regional), but Copp was cut down easily at home plate by a well-executed relay throw from Rigoli.

Franklin Pierce also had the game-winning run thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. Bishop attempted to get caught up in a rundown between first and second with Renaud at third base, but the Setters quickly fired home to get Renaud before he could get to the plate.

Franklin Pierce (29-9-1, 14-7-1 NE-10) will look to get back into the win column tomorrow evening when the Ravens host Saint Anselm College at Pappas Field beginning at 6 p.m. Pace (26-12-1, 15-3-1 NE-10) returns home to host the College of Saint Rose tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.