By Mike Ferris
Framingham State dropped both ends of a MASCAC doubleheader against conference-leader Westfield State.
In the opener, the Rams pitching staA couldn’t control the hot bats of Westfield State, while the team struggled to get any offense of its own.
The Owls scored three runs in both the first and second innings, one in the third, and two in both the fourth and sixth innings, en route to an 11-0 victory.
All six runs in the first two innings came off of Al Wallach, who was chased after just 1.2 innings, surrendering eight hits and two walks.
He was relieved by Josh Jezouit, who pitched 2.1 innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits.
Brian Quinn and Matt McIsaac both pitched an inning each.
The Owls, on the other hand, watched as three pitchers combined for a three-hit shutout, combining for 10 strikeouts and =ve walks. John Gegetskas started the game for West=eld, pitching five innings, surrendering one hit and striking out nine. He improved to 3-0 on the year.
Ryan Wardwell, Aaron Williams and Kyle Pileski had the three hits for the Rams.
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The second game was much like the first, as the Owls stayed hot, while the Rams offense continued to get shutdown.
Kevin Connelly started for the Rams, going five innings, allowing six hits, =ve runs, three earned, while striking out seven. He suffered his first loss of the year.
Michael Raymond relieved him, throwing the final inning for the Rams, allowing two runs of his own, on one hit, a walk and a strikeout.
Matt Nunes went the distance for Westfield State, pitching seven innings, allowing four hits, one run, and collecting seven strikeouts of his own.
Wardwell and Matt Brockett each had two hits for the Rams, combining for the only four hits on the Framingham side.
Connelly and Nunes battled each other early, as it was a 2-1 game heading into the fifth. The bottom half of that inning was when Connelly really got into trouble.
After striking out the first Westfield batter of the inning, he allowed back-to-back singles. With runners on first and second, Jared Ferrari fouled out for the second out of the inning, but Connelly wasn’t out of the woods yet.
The next batter was Alex Benevides, whose 2-RBI single blew the game open. He would later score after Arismendy Larancuent reached on an error.
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By Jose Carrasquillo
Asst. Sports Editor
On Apr. 15, the Rams visited Fisher College in a battle of the bats, winning the game 9-7.
After a 1-2-3 first inning for Framingham, Emmanuel Powers got the offense going with a leadoff triple, he eventually scored following an error by the second basemen.
Fisher College responded right away in the bottom of the second inning, with an Angel Vargas single. After a Jaime Villafane groundout advancing Vargas to second, Joshua Casado singled and advanced Vargas to third. Hayden Alicea flew out to left field to score Vargas, tying the game at 1-1.
Fisher College kept the bats going in the bottom of the third with a Sam Schroder walk. Following a Kyle Anulao fly out, Schroeder advanced to second on the passed ball. Reynaldo Moreta singled to advance Schroeder to third. Vargas laid a sacrifice bunt to score Schroeder and advance Moreta to second.
Framingham responded in the top of the fourth inning, with back-to-back homers from Jordan Pallazola and Powers to take the lead 3-2.
The Rams kept the hot bats going in the top of the fifth. Joe Ambrosino got the oAense going drawing a walk to get on base. Following a Wardell single, him and Ambrosino advanced one base to second and third. Williams was hit by a pitch that led to a Powers grand slam, increasing the lead to 7-2.
For Fisher College, they were unable to keep the offense rolling after facing such a deficit in the seventh inning when Powers scored Williams on an RBI double.
Fisher college made one last push in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring four runs to make it a two-run game. They left the potential game-winning run at the plate as Villafane flew out to end the game.
Powers led the way for the Rams with two homeruns, a triple and six RBIs.
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By Matt Ferris
Sports Editor
Framingham State took on Worcester State on Monday, Apr. 17, in a MASCAC doubleheader.
The Lancers jumped out to an early 2-0 after half an inning. Adam Barry and Mike Ferrara each had RBI hits in the inning off of Rams starter Michael Andrews.
The Rams tied things up at two in the bottom of the third. With Williams and Brockett on base, Pallazola ripped an RBI single scoring Williams and advancing Brockett to third. With runners on the corners, Wardwell singled to centerfield, scoring the tying run.
Worcester struck back in the next inning with two runs to go up 4-2. Both runs were unearned for the Lancers and the Rams made three errors in the inning.
Framingham came right back in the next half inning to tie the game up at four. After a Pileski double and a Williams walk, Brockett singled to left field to plate both runs.
The remaining three innings went scoreless to send the game to extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, Worcester struck for four runs to grab a 9-4 lead over Framingham. Jake Ryan drove in the game-winning run with a two-RBI double down the right field line.
The Rams couldn’t muster anything up in the bottom of the inning and lost the opening game of the double header 9-4.
Andrews pitched 7.1 innings for the Rams and gave up four runs on six hits. He struck out two.
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In game two of the doubleheader, Worcester again jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, with two runs in the top of the first. Barry singled to center to drive in the game’s first run and Ryan later stole home on a wild pitch to give the Lancers a 2-0 lead.
The Rams struck back in the bottom of the first to get one run back. Wardwell grounded out to first and Brockett scored on the play to make it 2-1.
In the top of the third, the Lancers struck again with another run. Barry drove in another run with an RBI double to left center, scoring Ryan to make it 3-1.
Worcester scored another run in the top of the fifth. When Ryan scored on an error by Powers to make it 4-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, after Pileski reached on an error and Brockett reached on a walk, Wardwell singled to right field to plate both runners and cut the Lancers lead to 4-3.
The Lancers got the two runs back in the top of the seventh, when Ryan scored on a Kevin Larkin single, followed by a Mike Powers sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.
Framingham couldn’t generate any offense in the bottom of the seventh, losing the game 6-3.
Kyle Hodgson pitched all seven innings for Framingham. He gave up six runs, three earned, on 15 hits and struck out six. He took the loss.
The Rams drop to 13-15 overall and 3-5 in the conference after the doubleheader.