Baseball splits twinbill with Fitchburg State on Senior Day
North Adams, MA—The MCLA Baseball team split a pair of games this afternoon with Fitchburg State. The Trailblazers took the opening game 7-5 before dropping the nightcap 21-6. The Falcons took two out of three from MCLA over the weekend as they are now 9-28 overall and 5-13 in the conference. MCLA dips to 11-24 on the season and are 2-16 in the league.
Game One: MCLA 7, Fitchburg State 5
Rob Correia came out of the bullpen in the first inning and tossed 6.1 innings, allowed just two runs, and struck out four Falcons to lead MCLA past Fitchburg.
The Falcons came out strong as Trailblazer starter Nathan Kumm had trouble finding the strike zone. A Vincent Eramo single coupled with walks to Brendan Ferrell and Liam Goldstein made it 3-0 after just a half inning of play. The Trailblazers would answer though in the bottom half.
Similar to Kumm's outing, Falcon starter Richard Sharp didn't make it out of the first. A Sharp wild pitch brought home Tristen Ciarlo and when Ty Mazzeo grounded out, it was 3-2. A wild pitch later brought home Isaiah Mack to tie the game up at 3-3 after just one inning of play.
Sharp singled home a run in the top of the second to put the Falcons back on top at 4-3, but MCLA's Ciarlo launched his first home run of the season, a three run blast, in the bottom of the inning to have the Trailblazer seize the lead at 6-4.
Fitchburg would claw closer with a single run in the third but MCLA answered in the fifth when Randy Adams singled home Robison Guerrero-Baez to give MCLA some breathing room at 7-5. Correia would do the rest and give MCLA the win.
Ciarlo was 2-3 with 3 RBI's and a pair of runs scored in the win. Patrick Sheehan also recorded a pair of hits for MCLA.
Fitchburg's Adam Kirsch took the loss going 5.2 innings for the Falcons.
Game Two: Fitchburg State 21, MCLA 6
MCLA took an early 4-0 lead after just one inning of play. Randy Adams drove home Guerrero-Baez for the games first run and Ty Mazzeo had an RBI groundout to make it 2-0. MCLA added an unearned run and then Josh Bologh ripped an RBI single to make it 4-0.
From there, the Falcon offense took over. Both teams were struggling with arms after the lengthy game yesterday and today's opener. The Falcons scored five times in the second inning to take the lead 5-4. Silas Thomas stole home to cap the rally when his teammate induced a run down between first and second.
They would add three more runs in the third inning, one in the fourth, and then blowing things open by scoring 6 times in the fifth. Zach Malek highlighted the offensive burst with a two run home run.
Fitchburg slugged 24 hits in the second game. Vincent Eramo was 4-6 on the afternoon while Sharp was 3-5 with a pair of RBI's. Brendan Ferrell went five innings to secure the win. He struck out five Trailblazers.
MCLA was paced by Guerrero-Baez who had a pair of hits and runs scored. Nate Morse absorbed the loss.
Prior to the game, MCLA honored their seniors. Pregame festivities highlighted the careers of Brett Norman, Isaiah Tucker, Isaiah Mack, Anthony Combs, and Austin Rachiele.