Gray Plates Three in Victory as Baseball Splits with Albertus Magnus

HAMDEN, CONN. – The Albertus Magnus College baseball team split a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) doubleheader with Anna Maria on Sunday afternoon at Rochford Field. The AMCATS scored a 3-0 victory in the opener and the host Falcons answered with a 10-4 triumph in the nightcap.

GAME ONE – ANNA MARIA 3, ALBERTUS MAGNUS 0

The opener turned into a pitcher's duel as Albertus Magnus freshman Malachi Emond (Coventry, Conn.) and Anna Maris sophomore Tanner Jakola (Leominster, Mass.) each went the distance. Emond was the tough-luck loser, tossing a complete game and allowing just one earned run, while striking out six. On the opposite side, Jakola threw a complete game two-hit shutout for his third win of the spring.

The guests opened the scoring in the top of the third as sophomore infielder Nate Gray (Kingston, N.Y.) delivered an RBI single to right field that brought Matthew Leahey (Rutland, Mass.) charging home. The AMCATS took the lead with the eventual game-winning run as Leahey reached base on a Falcon miscue.

Anna Maria took advantage of another Albertus Magnus error two innings later as Gray once again came through. With two runners on, Gray lined a single to left to score a pair with one of the AMCAT runners racing home as the ball was bobbled in left field.

Albertus Magnus threatened in both the third and fifth frames, putting a runner on third base in both stanzas, but they were stranded each time as Jakola worked out of the jams.

Freshmen Derwin Nunez (Bridgeport, Conn.) and Mike Browne (New Fairfield, Conn.) had the Falcon hits in the loss.

GAME TWO – ALBERTUS MAGNUS 10, ANNA MARIA 4

Junior starter Michael Terzi (Wallingford, Conn.) tossed a complete game to earn his first win of the season for the Falcons. Terzi scattered five hits and did not surrender an earned run. He fanned four hitters in his longest outing of the spring.

Anna Maria's five hits came from four different batters, led by freshman Connor Lavin (Leicester, Mass.) with a 2-for-3 day. Juniors James Marcello (Attleboro, Mass.), Jonathan Roy (Worcester, Mass.) and Joseph Lahey (Auburn, Mass.) all recorded a hit apiece.

The AMCATS opened the scoring in the first on a sacrifice-fly to center by Roy, which scored Marcello.

The hosts answered with two runs in the second courtesy of a sac fly to center from Browne and a wild pitch from Anna Maria starter Trevor Brown (Gardner, Mass.).

After the first inning, the Falcons scored at least a run in each of the final five times they came to plate. The squad put the game out of reach with a three-run outburst in the home half of the sixth.

During the stanza, senior catcher Mike Saia (Bridgeport, Conn.) line an RBI single up the middle and later came around to score on a double steal. Browne capped the scoring in the contest with an infield single that brought classmate Robert Perazzella (Wolcott, Conn.) charging home.

At the dish, Saia and Brown both had two hits for the hosts.

Brown took the loss on the mound for Anna Maria, scattering two hits, six runs (four unearned) and nine walks over four innings. Zach Parker (Manchester, Mass.) and Callan Finn-McMahan (West Hartford, Conn.) both pitched in relief.

WHAT'S NEXT

Anna Maria returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts Norwich in a 4:00 p.m. GNAC doubleheader at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, Mass.