Sacred Heart Surges Back to Championship Round; FDU and Bryant Still Alive

5/22/2015

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Sacred Heart finds itself in a familiar place. After two tremendous starting pitching performances, the Pioneers have made it through to the NEC Tournament championship round for the seventh consecutive season. SHU, the No. 3 seed, blanked No. 4 Fairleigh Dickinson in Friday’s winners’ bracket game at Dodd Stadium. Earlier in the day, top-seeded Bryant bounced back from Thursday’s defeat and eliminated Wagner, 4-2. The defending champion Bulldogs will face Fairleigh Dickinson for the second time this tournament during Saturday’s elimination game at noon. The winner of Bryant vs. FDU will face Sacred Heart in Saturday’s second contest at 4:00 pm. All games will air live at necfrontrow.com.

Game 3
#1 Bryant 4, #2 Wagner 2
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Cole Fabio made sure Bryant wasn’t the first team to bow out of the 2015 NEC Baseball Tournament.

The all-NEC second baseman went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and made a highlight-reel defensive play to power Bryant past Wagner, 4-2, in the tournament’s first elimination game.

“We’re not ready to go home yet,” said Fabio following the Bulldogs’ 27th win of the season. “We’re going to give it all we’ve got.”

Fabio was one of five Bryant Bulldogs to put forth a multi-hit performance on Friday.

In addition to the 14-hit attack, the defending champions used a quality start from right-handed hurler James Karinchak to keep their season alive.

Karinchak, an all-NEC first teamer, completed 6.0 innings while allowing only one run despite walking five batters. He handed a 3-1 lead over to reliever James Davitt, who closed out the victory with 3.0 frames of two-hit ball.

Bryant scored the game’s first three runs, plating a pair in the third inning and adding another in the fourth.

Outfielders AJ Zarozny and Jordan Mountford worked out walks to set the table in the third and Fabio feasted. The all-conference middle infielder roped a two-run, two-out double into the leftfield corner.

The Bulldogs bumped the lead to 3-0 one inning later when senior captain John Mullen doubled deep to leftfield.

Wagner snatched a run back in the fifth inning on a sac fly by Nick Mascelli.

Seahawks’ catcher Nick Dini, the NEC Player of the Year, hit the first home run of the tournament. The senior launched a high fly over the leftfield wall in the eighth, but Wagner would get nothing more.

Game 4
#3 Sacred Heart 10, #4 Fairleigh Dickinson 0
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Thus far, the “P” in Pioneer has stood for pitching.

For the second day in a row, Sacred Heart used a complete-game pitching performance from its starter to post a victory at the 2015 NEC Baseball Tournament.

This time, Jason Foley carried the load and was perfect for the first 5.2 innings of the 8-0 shutout victory. When the dust settled, the right-hander had surrendered only pair of singles and had not permitted a FDU player to reach second base.

Foley fanned six batters and walked none. Facing only two batters more than the minimum, he induced 15 groundball outs and finished the job in 101 pitches.

“I just wanted to get outs and keep my team in the game,” said Foley after twirling the postseason masterpiece.

The performance came one day after James Cooksey went the distance for a 3-1 victory over No. 2 seed Wagner.

The back-to-back complete-game wins have the Pioneers back in the tournament’s championship round for the seventh year in a row.
Sacred Heart struck early, plating four runs in the second inning and never looking back.

With two runners on base, the Pioneers received three consecutive two-out hits to opening the game’s scoring.

Kenny Byram started it with an RBI single.

All-NEC outfielder Jayson Sullivan chased home a pair by tripling down the leftfield line.

Jesus Medina, who sparked SHU’s ninth-inning rally on Thursday with a base knock, followed with a run-scoring single to make it 4-0. Medina went 3-for-5 and scored two runs, but the real offensive hero was shortstop Zack Short.

After connecting on the game-tying double in Thursday’s comeback win, Short experienced a power surge in his second game of the tournament. The all-NEC selection launched a pair of two-run home runs and finished 4-for-5 at the plate with 5 RBI.

Short also put his defensive ability on display, ranging deep into the hole and robbing John Giakas of a leadoff hit in the third inning.

“It makes it a ton easier when the offense produces for you and there are no errors made behind you,” said Foley about the support he received Friday.

Meanwhile, FDU’s offense was held hitless until rightfielder Shane Siebler cleanly singled up the middle with two outs in the sixth inning. All-NEC centerfielder Riley Moonan was responsible for the Knights’ lone other hit, a one-out single in the seventh.

Six different FDU pitchers combined to surrender 19 hits to Sacred Heart.

THURSDAY 5.21.15 DAY ONE