Baseball Holds Off Mass. Maritime, 13-10

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. - Senior Matt Jordan (Concord, N.H.) rapped out four hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead Wentworth to a 13-10 non-league college baseball victory over Massachusetts Maritime Thursday afternoon at Commodore Hendy Field.

The visiting Leopards (20-9) overcame an early 1-0 deficit by sending 12 men to the plate in the top of second for their first of two six-run frames on the day en route to notching their fourth straight 20-win season and fifth in program history, as RBI singles by Jordan and junior Joe Meucci (West Hartford, Conn.), along with a sacrifice fly off the bat of freshman Paul Dassau (Franklin, Mass.), highlighted the frame.  The host Buccaneers (9-12) got two runs back in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Tyler Genereux (Duxbury, Mass.) and an RBI double by senior Michael Vargas (Framingham, Mass.), whose two-run single capped a four-run third inning rally that also included an RBI single off the bat of freshman Ben Maher (Plymouth, Mass.) that gave Massachusetts Maritime a 7-6 advantage.

Wentworth took control of the contest with another six-run outburst in the fourth, as senior Doug Papuga (Branford, Conn.) evened matters with an RBI triple and scored on an RBI single by junior Conner Flisnik (Marcy, N.Y.).  Sophomore Ryan Delgado (Wareham, Mass.) added a two-run safety for the Leopards, who also received a run scoring single from Dassau in the inning that gave the visitors a 12-7 edge.  The Buccaneers got a run back in the bottom half of the frame on senior Greg Wiggin's (Marshfield, Mass.) RBI single, and after sophomore Tom Moules (Peabody, Mass.) closed on Wentworth's scoring with an RBI groundout in the sixth, a two-run triple by senior Nick Levitre (Grafton, Mass.) enabled Massachusetts Maritime to close back to within three in the bottom of the seventh, but the hosts' got no closer despite having base runners on in each of the last two frames.

Delgado added three hits as a part of a 16-hit attack in the triumph for Wentworth, which also received two hits each from Meucci, Dassau and junior Kevin McKenzie (Arlington, Mass.).  Freshman Mike Berry (Belfast, Maine) improved to 3-0 on the mound for the Leopards with four innings in relief of sophomore Matt Thomas (Mashpee, Mass.), while sophomore Ryan DeCotis (Nashua, N.H.) pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save for the Leopards.  Maher rapped out three of Massachusetts Maritime's 14 hits in the setback, as Vargas, Wiggin and sophomore Aram Mulhern (Taunton, Mass.) each collected two hits for the hosts.  Sophomore Patrick Derrane (Utica, N.Y.), the second of seven Buccaneer hurlers on the day, suffered the setback on the mound to fall to 0-2.

Massachusetts Maritime hosts Westfield State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday afternoon at Commodore Hendy Field beginning at 1:00 p.m., while Wentworth travels to Beverly, Mass. on Saturday afternoon to take on Endicott in a Commonwealth Coast Conference twinbill that begins at Noon.

-Release Courtesy of Mass. Maritime Sports Information-