Baseball’s Ninth-Inning Rally Falls Short, MCLA Holds On For 9-8 Win

Box Score

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Elms College senior shortstop Brendan Cordeiro (Berkley, Mass.) crushed a homer and drove in three runs and the Blazers scored three in the top of the ninth, but the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) held on for a 9-8 victory in Tuesday afternoon's non-conference baseball game at Joe Zavattaro Stadium in North Adams, Mass.

With the loss, Elms moves to 9-11 on the season, while MCLA improves to 7-12 overall.

Trailing 9-5 in the top of the ninth freshman second baseman Anthony Pagano (Cranston, R.I.) and freshman first baseman Zachary Dreher (Naugatuck, Conn.) connected for back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and freshman Alex King (Lebanon, Conn.) earned a walk to load the bases for Brendan Cordeiro who then drew a free pass allowing Pagano to score. Sophomore center fielder Stephen Fisher (West Boylston, Mass.) then drilled a fielder's choice to second base driving in Dreher to pull the Blazers to within two at 9-7. A groundout by junior third baseman Nicolino Iavicoli (Hampden, Mass.) plated King with the Blazers' third run of the frame. Fisher then raced to third on a wild pitch before Trailblazers' relief pitcher Mike Meaney (North Adams, Mass.) forced a game-ending strikeout to give MCLA a 9-8 victory.

Meaney earned the save – his first of the season. MCLA starting pitcher Mike Bullett (North Adams, Mass.) pitched the first seven innings and earned the win to improve to 2-1 on the season, striking out four hitters in the process.

Elms' freshman middle reliever Carlos Camacho (Springfield, Mass.) entered in the fourth inning and tossed two innings of relief but suffered the loss and falls to 0-1 on the season.

After falling behind 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning, Elms took the lead with a five-run second frame when junior left fielder Donald Morse (Alfred, Maine) cracked a double to lead off the stanza, junior catcher Reynaldo Rivera (San Juan, Puerto Rico) drew a walk, and senior designated hitter Hector Roche (Bronx, N.Y.) poked a base hit to left field to load the bases. A sacrifice fly by Pagano set the score at 2-1 and a groundout to the pitcher gave MCLA two outs in the inning before King drilled a two-run single to right field giving the Blazers 3-2 lead. Brendan Cordeiro then launched a two-run homer to extend Elms' lead to 5-2.

MCLA got two back in the bottom of the third inning on the strength of an RBI double by Paul Procopio (Pittsfield, Mass.) and a run-scoring groundout by Zach Zeulen (West Springfield, Mass.) to pull the Trailblazers to within one at 5-4.

Theulen then scorched an RBI single to right center field to even the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth before MCLA posted a four-run lead in the home half of the sixth frame to give the Trailblazers a 9-5 advantage. Joe Parillo (West Springfield, Mass.) blasted a three-run home run and Zeulen picked up his third RBI of the contest to highlight MCLA four-run inning.

Roche finished with two hits, while King drove in two in the losing effort.

Parillo and Theulen drove in three runs each in the win for MCLA, while four Trailblazers tallied two hits each.

Elms returns to non-conference action on Thursday, April 14 at Fitchburg State University with a 3:30 p.m. showdown with the Falcons.