WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State baseball team scored a season-high 19 runs on 23 hits as the Owls extended their winning streak to five games in a 19-7 rout of Framingham State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game on Friday afternoon from Bud and Jim Hagan Field in Westfield, Mass.
The Owls move to 20-12 overall and 11-5 in the MASCAC. The Rams drop to 9-22 on the season with a 4-12 mark in conference play.
Westfield opened the scoring in the first inning as graduate student Max Silverman (Westford, Mass.) drove in the first run of the game on a run-scoring single through the left side of the infield to plate Nick Martin (Shrewsbury, Mass.). Silverman would come around to score on an error to make it 2-0 followed by an RBI single by Nolan Florence (Chicopee, Mass.) to give the Owls a 3-0 lead after one inning.
In the second frame, after Martin belted his second double in as many innings, first-year Samuel Palmer (Medfield, Mass.) knocked Martin in with a double of his own to left-centerfield. Palmer would advance home in the next at bat on an error to push the lead to 5-0.
The Owls delivered the knockout punch in a seven-run third inning with senior Damien Maniscalco (Branford, Conn.) and Martin hitting a pair of sacrifice flies to make it 7-0. Silverman tallied his second and third RBI on the day with a two-run single to plate Zack Graveline (Prospect, Conn.) and Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass.). Senior Ethan Day (Meriden, Conn.) then punctuated the inning by launching a three-run home run to left-centerfield to give the Owls a 12-0 lead after three innings.
The Westfield bats continued to surge in the fifth inning, with six additional runs, capped off by a two-run home run to left off the bat of senior Jake Butler (Westfield, Mass.). Florence collected a pair of RBI in the frame and Maniscalco singled in a run as well as the Owls scored the first 18 runs in the contest.
Rams' sophomore Cam Gilroy (Salisbury, Mass.) put Framingham on the board in the sixth with a two-run triple out to deep center to score Lucas Basile (Upton, Mass.) and Robert Johnston (Watertown, Mass.). Gilroy advanced to home on a wild pitch on the next at bat.
First-year Joey Fasolino (Norton, Mass.) added a run-scoring single in the eighth followed by a two-out two-RBI single by Johnston to give the Rams seven runs in the game.
Sophomore Sean Clark (Dudley, Mass.) recorded run number 19 in the bottom of the eighth with a single to center to bring home John Nickerson (Chelmsford, Mass.).
Westfield State starter Nate Langmeier (East Granby, Conn.) (W, 5-2) put together 5.2 innings of work, striking out eight and allowing four hits and three unearned runs. Framingham starter Vinny LoGuidice (Billerica, Mass.) (L, 2-2) surrendered 12 runs, nine earned, in 2.2 innings pitched.
The Owls, who have now scored 36 runs in their last two games, had six players tally multi-hit games. Silverman, Day, and Florence all had three RBI.
Gilroy delivered a four-hit day for the Rams, including two RBI and two runs scored.
Westfield State and Framingham State will wrap up the regular season series with a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 1:00 P.M. from Bowditch Field in Framingham, Mass.