WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State baseball team suffered a pair of losses to Worcester State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader from Hagan Field in Westfield, Mass. on Saturday afternoon.
The Lancers took game one by holding on to a 7-5 win and closed out game two with a 5-3 victory. After taking the first of three games with a win on the road on Friday, the Owls drop the season series with Worcester, falling to 10-14 overall and 5-4 in the conference. The Lancers improve to 11-14 and 6-3 in league action.
GAME 1
Worcester scored the first five runs of the game fueled by an Anthony Iamarone (Providence, R.I.) two-run single. The Lancers tacked on two more runs after a Robison Guerrero Baez (Dominican Republic) RBI double to make it a 7-1 Worcester lead.
Westfield rallied late in the game, posting a four-run sixth inning with Devin Slattery (Ware, Mass.), Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass.) and Alex Martin (Shrewsbury, Mass.) delivering RBIs.
The Owls loaded the bases in the seventh inning with the tying and winning runs aboard, but Brett Bucklin (Lynn, Mass.) was able to force a pop-up in foul territory to seal the game one win.
Cole Glassburn (Hopkinton, Mass.) picked up the win, tossing 6.1 innings while allowing five runs on seven hits with three strikeouts. Ryan Donahue (Medfield, Mass.) took the loss after giving up five runs across 3.2 innings.
GAME 2
Ethan Day (Meriden, Conn.) started off the scoring with a sacrifice fly, then the game cruised into the fourth frame before the contest was delayed due to lightning in the area, causing a stoppage that lasted nearly two hours.
The game resumed and the Owls tacked on an additional run off an error from the Lancers, but Worcester would rally from two runs down to eventually pull ahead in the fifth inning. Tyler Smith (Leominster, Mass.) tied the game with a two-run double, then Alex Sorenti-Burns (Sagamore Beach, Mass.) drove in the go-ahead runs the with a two-RBI double, putting the Lancers ahead for the remainder of the game.
Kevin Zarnoch Jr. (Boston, Mass.) earned the win after pitching six innings with Luke Mathewson (Eastford, Conn.) shouldering the loss. Danny DiMassimo (Pittsfield, Mass.) got the save.
Westfield State will have a quick turnaround as the Owls travel to MCLA for a MASCAC clash today at 3:00 P.M. in a game that was moved up from Monday due to forecasted weather.