Baseball Rings-In New Season in Myrtle Beach With 5-2 Victory Over Mercy
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Franklin Pierce | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 1 |
|
Mercy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (2/23/23) – In their first matchup of the 2023 spring season, the Franklin Pierce baseball team defeated Mercy College at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, by a score of 5-2 at Crosley Field on Thursday evening.
Baseball opens the season 1-0 following the win, while Mercy drops to 2-4 on their season with the loss.
The Ravens opened things up in the top of the second inning following a scoreless first, pulling ahead to a 3-0 advantage. With runners at the corners, senior catcher Max Gebauer (Guilderland, N.Y.) drove in the evening's first run with an RBI single. Two batters later, with the bases now loaded, junior newcomer Julien Monks (Paris, France) scored another pair of RBI with a single to the right side, bring Pierce to their three-run advantage.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Mavericks would break silence with a scoring double, cutting into the Raven lead at 3-1.
Both teams would go scoreless through the sixth and seventh innings, leading up to another Pierce strike in the top of the eighth. Junior Ian Battipaglia (Cheshire, Conn.) received a free-pass to first base on a introductory walk, eventually advancing to second on a groundout to first on the next batter, setting up sophomore infielder Jose Savinon (Brooklyn, N.Y.) for a scoring opportunity. Low and behold, Savinon bought Battipaglia a ticket home with a double, making it 5-2 Ravens to close out the top-half.
Mercy would respond one last time in the bottom half of the eighth, but would fail to inch any closer to the Ravens, who walked away with the 5-2 win.
From the mound, junior Kyle Roche (Braintree, Mass.) claimed the win for the Ravens following the start, tossing 6.1 innings for a total of one run allowed on seven hits, as well as nine strikeouts. Freshman Jackson Walker (Phippsburg, Maine) and junior Sean Foody (Tappan, N.Y.) each entered in relief, combining for 0.3 innings pitched with two strikeouts, and one run allowed. Earning the save for Pierce was graduate Brian Hadden (Newburyport, Mass.), who tossed the final inning with one strikeout and no runs allowed.
Baseball will continue their trip to Myrtle Beach with a doubleheader matchup against Chestnut Hill College on Friday, February 24th at 4:30 and 7:30 PM.