Rivers belts two homers to lead third-seeded Ravens past second-seeded Owls

RINDGE, N.H. (May 9, 2008) – Third-seeded Franklin Pierce University, ranked 20th in this week’s National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and pingbaseball.com Division II polls and 29th in the Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings, notched a 5-2 victory over second-seeded Southern Connecticut State University, among team’s receiving votes in this week’s NCBWA poll, in today’s Northeast-10 Conference Baseball Championship opener, presented by Diamond Sports and UBS/The Ricciardi Group, at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field this afternoon.

Franklin Pierce (37-12, 20-10 NE-10) will face top-seeded and regular season NE-10 champion Bryant University (39-17, 25-5 NE-10) in a winner’s bracket semifinal tomorrow at 3 p.m. Southern Connecticut State (34-16, 24-6 NE-10) faces fifth-seeded Pace University (32-21, 18-12 NE-10) in an elimination contest tomorrow at 11 a.m. Bryant posted a 4-3 victory over Pace in today’s second game.

Sophomore rightfielder Kevin Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) led the way for Franklin Pierce as he hit 2-for-3, matching the program record for home runs in a game with two, to go with two RBI. Junior Cliff Hicks (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) hit 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored, while senior Tyler Bishop (Milford, N.H./Milford) was 1-for-3 with a stolen base and RBI. Grad student Jake Christman (Newton, Mass./Newton South) chipped in by going 1-for-4 with a stolen base and RBI.

Sophomore lefthander Brian Maloney (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) improved to 7-1 on the season for the Ravens, allowing just an earned run, while scattering five hits (all singles) and three walks to go with nine strikeouts over seven innings. Bishop closed the game out to earn his seventh save of the season, yielding an earned run on two hits with two strikeouts and a walk over the final two innings.

Senior Paul Izzo (Cohoes, N.Y./Cohoes) led Southern Connecticut as he hit 2-for-4 with a home run, while junior Mike Diaz (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) batted 2-for-3 with a stolen base and run scored. Junior Karl Derbacher (Northford, Conn./North Branford) was 1-for-5 with an RBI.

Junior lefthander Jim Fuller (Marlborough, Mass.) suffered just his second loss of the season (9-2), surrendering a season-high matching four earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over seven innings.

Rivers gave Franklin Pierce the early advantage with his first home run of the afternoon to lead off the second inning. Southern evened the game in the third as junior Chris Barile (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem) drew a one-out walk, reached second on a an error during a failed pickoff attempt, and scored on a two-out single to right by junior Karl Derbacher (Northford, Conn./North Branford).

Rivers second home run of the afternoon, with two out in the fourth, put the Ravens in front for good. Fuller entered the game having yielded just one home run all season, but surrendered two in back-to-back at bats to Rivers, who has homered three times in the Ravens first two NE-10 Tournament contests. Franklin Pierce added another single run in the fifth as Hicks singled to left to lead off the frame and scored two batters later on a single to right center by Bishop.

Franklin Pierce extended its lead to 4-1 in the seventh when junior Steve Carr (Nahant, Mass./St. Mary’s) led off with a walk and scored two batters later on a single to center by Christman. Hicks put the Ravens up by four runs with his third home run of the season to left center to lead off the ninth.

Southern Connecticut scored its second run of the game in the home half of the ninth as Izzo led off with his second homer of the season to leftfield. The Owls threatened further, bringing the tying run to the plate with one out. However, Bishop stranded runners on the corners with a strikeout and pop out to escape the jam and send the Ravens into the winner’s bracket.