Owls Cruise Past Vikings, 13-4

WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State baseball team used a seven-run first inning to distance themselves from Salem State in a 13-4 victory in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game from Hagan Field in Westfield, Mass. on Friday afternoon.

The Owls improve to 12-15 on the season and 6-5 in conference action. The Vikings fall to 7-20 overall and 4-8 in league play.

Westfield opened up a seven-run lead after the first inning of play, sending 11 batters to the plate and registering five of the Owls 15 hits in the contest. Two consecutive RBI doubles from Dan Burnett (Granville, Mass.) and Devin Slattery (Ware, Mass.) plated the first two runs of the frame.

Ethan Day (Meriden, Conn.) added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, then Justin Neidel (Attleboro, Mass.) drove home two more runs on a single through the right side of the infield. Robison Guerrero Baez (Dominican Republic) followed with an RBI single, then Sean Clark (Dudley, Mass.), in his second at bat of the inning, capped off the scoring with a sac fly to right field.

Westfield extended the lead to nine runs with a run crossing the plate in the second and third innings with Nolan Florence (Chicopee, Mass.) and Burnett tacking on RBIs.

A pair of errors allowed for two runs to come home for the Vikings in the fifth inning, but Florence would get both runs back in the sixth inning after belting a towering home run to left, making it an 11-2 Owls advantage.

Salem tallied a pair of runs in the eighth inning with Aidan Lynch (North Andover, Mass.) sending home Owen Duggan (Billerica, Mass.) on a fielder's choice. Chris Simone (Milford, Conn.) scored Tyler Wilson (Lynn, Mass.) on a double down the left field line to conclude the scoring for both sides.

Florence led all players with three RBI while recording two hits. Burnett racked up three more hits to extend his hitting streak to nine games while also plating two RBI. Clark, Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass.), and Slattery generated multi-hit games. Neidel reached base four times, recording a hit and three walks.

Jake Boucher (Wallingford, Conn.) wrapped a triple for the Vikings with Samuel Erskine (Killingworth, Conn.), Lynch and Simone generating RBIs.

Ryan Lapierre (Pittsfield, Mass.) picked up his fourth win of the season for the Owls, tossing six innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits. He walked four and fanned eight. Bobby Jellison (Salem, Mass.) took the loss for the Vikings after surrendering seven runs on five hits in an inning of work.

The Owls and Vikings will meet again tomorrow in a doubleheader set of games from Salem, Mass. with first pitch of game one beginning at 12:00 P.M.