Worcester State College
Baseball Game Recap
May 1, 2008
Lancer Baseball Heads To Winner’s Bracket With 7-6 Win in 10
Worcester, MA – Worcester State College senior Chris Gusha (Rutland, MA) culminated a 5-5 day with an RBI single to centerfield scoring fellow senior Chris Logan (Spencer, MA) in the bottom of the tenth inning to send the Lancers to winner’s bracket of the MASCAC postseason baseball tournament by virtue of a, 7-6, win over the visiting Vikings of Salem State College Thursday afternoon at Assumption College. The second seeded Lancers will play the top seeded Westfield State College Owls who defeated Bridgewater State, 8-3, this afternoon. Salem State will face Bridgewater State on Saturday in an elimination game in a game to be played at Westfield State.
Worcester State scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning when Gusha hit his fourth homer of the year bringing home Matt Hart (Easton, MA) who doubled to open up the inning.
Salem State halved the lead in the top of the third inning when Ben Garlington (Rochester, MA) led off the inning with a homer over the right field fence to set the score at, 2-1.
The Lancers extended their lead to, 4-1, in the bottom of the inning. Nate Nelson (Worcester, MA) laced a bases loaded single up the middle to drive in Logan and senior Ryan Hawley (Shrewsbury, MA) with the third and fourth Worcester State runs of the afternoon.
Ken Luongo (Wilmington, MA) hit Salem State’s second long ball of the day with one out in the fourth inning to cut the Worcester State lead to, 4-2.
Worcester State got the run back in the bottom of the fourth when freshman Corey Abbascia (Shrewsbury, MA) doubled and advanced to third on a ground out to second base. Abbascia came across on a passed ball.
The Lancers upped their lead to, 6-2, in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Abbascia to score Gusha who walked earlier in the inning.
Salem State would not roll over. The Vikings scored a single run in the eighth inning and three in the ninth to tie the game at, 6-6. In the eighth, Salem State scored after Worcester State retired the first two batters if the inning when Luongo singled home second baseman Bobby Celentano (Peabody, MA). In the ninth, the big blow came after Nick Dunn (Mashpee, MA) got a pinch hit RBI single when third baseman Mike Adessa (Revere, MA) hit a bases loaded single to knot the game at, 6-6.
In the tenth, with two out, Logan singled to left and advanced to second on a passed ball to set the stage for Gusha’s heroics and send the host home with a, 7-6, victory.
Along with Gusha’s perfect day at the plate, Logan,
Nelson and Abbascia all had two hit days. Salem State had four
players have multiple hit days as Luongo, Garlington, Adessa and
first baseman Rob Coppola (Revere, MA) all had a pair of
hits.
Worcester State got a tremendous starting pitching performance from
sophomore Joey Lucier (Brockton, MA). The right-handed
hurler went 7.2 innings scattering 8 hits giving up 3 runs and
striking out 10 Vikings.
Junior Pat Good (Hull, MA) picked up his third win of the season, while Salem State ace Scott Lynch (Malden, MA) took the loss.
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