Savastano’s fourth homer of the season to lead off bottom of the eighth lifts Ravens to seventh-straight win

RINDGE, N.H. (April 2, 2008) – Franklin Pierce University, ranked fourth in this week’s pingbaseball.com Division II poll, fifth in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll and seventh in the Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings, notched its seventh-straight win with a 4-3 victory over Stonehill College, ranked seventh in the NCBWA’s Northeast Regional rankings, in Northeast-10 Conference baseball action at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field this afternoon.

Junior preseason All-American Scott Savastano (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his team-leading fourth home run of the season to provide the difference. Savastano finished 2-for-4 on the afternoon. Grad student Jake Christman (Newton, Mass./Newton South) also hit 2-for-4 with a stolen base and RBI to extend his team-leading hitting streak to eight games. Junior Steve Carr (Nahant, Mass./St. Mary’s) was 1-for-2 with an RBI, while classmate Cliff Hicks (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) batted 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Senior All-Region reliever Tyler Bishop (Milford, N.H./Milford) picked up the win (4-1) for the Ravens with 1.1 shutout innings, yielding a hit with two strikeouts. Junior left-hander Tom Cote (Swanzey, N.H./Monadnock Regional) started and allowed two earned runs on four hits with a career-best ten strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work. Cote was perfect through the first 3.2 innings - striking out six of seven Stonehill batters at one point, including four-straight.

Sophomore Rob Von Stein (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull) was the lone Stonehill batter with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a double and run scored. Senior Dave Fradette (Goffstown, N.H./Goffstown) hit 1-for-3 with an RBI, while sophomore Mitch Davis (Bow, N.H./Bow) drove in a run as well.

Junior reliever Justin Perry (Wilbraham, Mass./Wilbraham-Monson) suffered the loss for the Skyhawks, yielding an earned run on three hits with three strikeouts over 1.2 innings. Freshman right-hander Nick Peters (Newton, Mass./Catholic Memorial) got the start for Stonehill and allowed three earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks over the opening 6.1 innings.

Franklin Pierce struck first with a two-run second after the Ravens first two batters reached base. Sophomore Kevin Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) led off with a single and later scored on a one-out flare single down the left field line by Carr. Hicks, who was hit by a Peters pitch, scored on a ground out by freshman Kyle Cabral (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford).

Stonehill broke through in the sixth to cut the Ravens lead in half. Von Stein led off with a bloop double down the line in right and scored on a one-out single down the rightfield line by Fradette. The Skyhawks had the bases loaded with just the one out, but Cote got a strikeout and groundout to escape the jam. Stonehill knotted the score after chasing Cote in the seventh. Freshman Angelo Bruno (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) drew a leadoff walk and scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Davis.

Franklin Pierce regained the lead in the home half of the seventh on a two-out RBI single to right-center by Christman. Stonehill evened the score again with an unearned run in the eighth. Sophomore Brenden Shephard (Boxford, Mass./Masconomet) drew a two out walk, advanced to second on an error on a failed pickoff attempt and then scored when sophomore Shane Franz (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) reached on an error.

Savastano came through with his leadoff homer to right to break the tie for the last time in the home half of the eighth and Bishop worked around a leadoff single in the ninth, striking out the last two batters, to seal the victory.

Franklin Pierce (17-2, 4-0 NE-10) is back in action tomorrow when it hosts Bryant University, among teams receiving votes nationally, for a twi-night doubleheader between the top two teams in this week’s NCBWA Northeast Regional poll, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Stonehill (12-9, 4-3 NE-10) visits Merrimack College tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.