NORTH ADAMS – The MCLA Trailblazers and Westfield State Owls split a baseball doubleheader Tuesday in MASCAC action. MCLA took the opener 4-2 and the Owls snatched game two 7-5 in 12 innings.
With the split, the Trailblazers are 3-22 overall, 2-10 in the MASCAC. Westfield improves to 14-17 overall, 7-5 in conference play.
The exciting nightcap saw a bit of everything. Westfield was up 2-0 after two innings then the host Trailblazers scored four times in the fourth inning to take a 4-2 advantage. Three of the runs were unearned.
The Owls tied the score in the fifth on a RBI double from Tim Santilli and an RBI groundout from Kyle Colesanti.
MCLA went ahead in the bottom half of the fifth on Ferraro’s second RBI hit of the game, then the Owls pushed across the equalizer in the sixth on a two-out single by Andrew Medeiros.
From there, it became a battle of the bullpens as MCLA’s Jared Gersch and Westfield’s John Silva kept zeroes on the board. Each team had plenty of opportunities to grab the lead in the extra frames, but the defenses held firm. Colesanti made a tremendous diving stab in the 10th inning and MCLA squandered a golden chance in the 11th.
Consecutive singles and a sacrifice bunt put MCLA runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out in the 11th. Following an intentional pass to Ferraro that loaded the bases, Westfield’s Pete Liimatainen entered and struck out the next two Trailblazers to preserve the tie.
In the top of the 12th, Gersch finally tired for MCLA as he walked the first two hitters. After a sacrifice bunt moved them up, Dan Rokitowski laced a two-run double off Trailblazer reliever Nate Alibozek to push Westfield ahead. Liimatainen sent the Trailblazers down in order in the 12th to nail down the win.
Liimatainen earned the win to improve to 2-2 on the season. Silva went 6 2/3 innings out of the pen and allowed just 5 hits and a run. Gersch went six innings for MCLA, yielding just 4 hits, but did allow 7 free passes. He fell to 0-2 on the season.
Rokitowski had a pair of hits as did Matt Ferrelli for Westfield. Sullivan had four safeties for MCLA and Ferraro added three.
In the opener, the game was scoreless after three innings. MCLA jumped ahead scoring three runs in the 4th to take a 3-0 edge. Sean Coyle provided the key hit with a two-run double to center field.
In the 5th, Duncan led off with a walk and promptly stole second base. He scored on an RBI single by Chase Preite for a 4-0 lead.
The lead would hold up until the 7th inning when the Owls mounted a rally. Two walks sandwiched a Jeremy Tanguay single to load the bases with no outs against MCLA’s Cody Weaver. An error scored a run and put the tying run on first base with still no outs.
Weaver got Rokitowski to fly out to center field and Medeiros lifted a sacrifice fly for the second run of the frame. Weaver beared down struck out Kevin Greene to end the game.
Weaver went four innings in relief of Ross Miner to earn the win. He allowed four hits and struck out four. Mike Sullivan absorbed the setback for Westfield after allowing 7 hits in 4 1/3 innings of work.
Preite led MCLA with three hits in the opener.
MCLA is back in action on Thursday when they host Elms College, while Westfield travels to Endicott College.
