NCAA II NORTHEAST REGION CHAMPIONSHIP
SWEET! SWEET! SAUGET!
#14/21 Franklin Pierce Powers Past Bryant, 10-3
Top-seeded Ravens rebound from 12-10 loss in game ten to take nightcap and advance to NCAA II Baseball Championships for third-straight year
Information Provided By Franklin Pierce Sports
Information
RINDGE, N.H. (May 19, 2008) – Top-seeded and host Franklin
Pierce University, ranked 14th in the most recent pingbaseball.com
Division II poll and 21st in the Collegiate Baseball magazine
rankings, bounced back from a 12-10 loss in the first game of the
championship round to claim a 10-3 victory in the winner-take-all
nightcap and eliminate second-seeded Bryant University, capturing
its third-straight NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Championship
at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field this afternoon.
Franklin Pierce (43-13, 20-10 NE-10) advances to the NCAA Division
II Baseball Championships in Sauget (SO-zhjay), Illinois, May
24-31, at GCS Ballpark and hosted by Southern Illinois University
– Edwardsville, the University of Missouri – Saint
Louis, the Village of Sauget and the Gateway Grizzlies. It marks
the third-straight year (fourth in six seasons) Franklin Pierce has
reached the Division II World Series, but will travel to Sauget for
the first time after making four trips to Montgomery, Ala., whose
run of hosting the championships ended after 23 years. The Ravens
will face Central Region champions Central Missouri State
University (45-15) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (EDT).
We’ve had such success here and (during the season) we lose
a couple games and people are making a big deal out of it,”
said Franklin Pierce Head Coach Jayson King. “But the guys
stepped up and did the job and made it happen. I’m proud
because it wasn’t a cake walk this year and I’m happy
to have the chance to go out and win a national
championship.”
Bryant, regular season champions of the Northeast-10 Conference,
sees its final season at the Division II level come to a close with
an overall record of 43-21 (25-5 NE-10). The Bulldogs, who begin
their transition period to Division I in 2008-09, battled back from
losing its first game of the regional, 7-6 to Dowling College on
Thursday, through the loser’s bracket to force Franklin
Pierce into the decisive 11th game of the regional.
Senior centerfielder Kevin Renaud (Southbridge, Mass./Southbridge)
earned Most Outstanding Player honors at the regional for the
second-straight year. He hit a combined .522 (12-for-23) over
Franklin Pierce’s five games with seven runs scored, two
doubles, five home runs (one in each game), a stolen base and 15
RBI. A remarkable ten of Renaud’s 15 RBI came with two outs
and he hit 6-for-9 in that situation for the weekend.
Franklin Pierce drove in 37 of its 59 runs scored for the weekend
with two out as the Ravens hit .486 (36-for-74) as a team with two
outs for the weekend. Joining Renaud on the Northeast Regional
All-Tournament team from Franklin Pierce are junior first baseman
Steve Carr (Nahant, Mass./St. Mary’s), junior shortstop Scott
Savastano (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North), junior pitcher Mike
Adams (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park), sophomore outfielder Kevin
Rivers (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) and sophomore pitcher Brian
Maloney (Brockton, Mass./Brockton).
“We’re hitting the ball as hard as I have ever had a
team here hit the ball,” said King. “I really like the
team we have going into this and look forward to the next
stage.”
Rivers led Franklin Pierce this afternoon, hitting a combined
6-for-10 with four runs scored, a double, two home runs and five
RBI in the two games. Renaud was 5-for-10 with two runs scored, a
double, two homers and four RBI, while Savastano finished 4-for-8
with four runs scored, a home run and three RBI.
Senior Mark Dondero (Medfield, Mass./Xavarian) was a combined
5-for-8 this afternoon for Bryant with two RBI and a stolen base.
Junior Pat O’Connor (Mattapoisett, Mass./Old Rochester) hit
3-for-6 with four runs scored, a home run and four RBI today.
Franklin Pierce 10, Bryant 3
Franklin Pierce scored nine runs between the sixth and seventh
innings to turn a 1-1 deadlock into a 10-1 lead en route to
clinching the regional title.
“We knew Bryant has a good team and was going to play us
tough,” said Jayson King. “But I felt no team was going
to beat us twice today.”
Mike Adams, the Northeast-10 and Daktronics Northeast Region
Pitcher of the Year, pinned down his program-record 11th win of the
season (11-1) with his second victory of the regional, settling
down the Bryant bats which had scored 12 runs in the first game and
were averaging 10.5 runs in its four wins since dropping its
opening game of the regional on Thursday. Adams allowed three runs,
two earned, on eight hits with ten strikeouts and three walks over
eight-plus innings on just three days rest.
“I was a little tight and didn’t know how I was going
to feel today (on three day’s rest),” said Adams.
“I felt good the other day when I threw (on the side) and no
matter what I was going to go out there.”
Kevin Rivers paced the Ravens offense, hitting 3-for-4 with a
double, home run, two runs scored and three RBI. Kevin Renaud was
1-for-4 with a homer and two RBI, while Scott Savastano finished
1-for-3 with a homer, two runs scored and three RBI.
Senior Jason Alexander (Simsbury, Conn./Simsbury) led Bryant,
going 3-for-5 with a run scored. Sophomore Nick Campbell (Raynham,
Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) hit 2-for-5 with a home run, RBI and two
runs scored. Mark Dondero finished 1-for-3 with a stolen base.
Senior righthander Eric Loh (Old Greenwich, R.I./Greenwich)
suffered the loss on the mound for the Bulldogs, surrendering five
runs, four earned, on four hits with six strikeouts and a walk over
5.2 innings. Loh breezed through the first five innings, facing
just one over the minimum in that time.
Loh had retired 13 in a row after getting the first out of the
sixth, but Franklin Pierce grad student Jake Christman (Newton,
Mass./Newton South) got an infield hit and freshman Derek Ingui
(Sterling, Mass./Wachusett Regional) drew a two-out walk before
Savastano chased a pitch over the fence in right that was able to
get up into the gusting wind which prevailed through the two
games.
“I just got it up in the wind and when the outfielder was
coming in (at first), I thought it was an easy pop fly,” said
Savastano. “But it just kept going.”
Rivers followed by belting Loh’s very next pitch well over
the right field fence for his ninth home run of the season (eighth
in nine postseason games), ending the Bryant starter’s day.
Franklin Pierce broke the game open with its five-run seventh.
Steve Carr led off with a homer to right center, while Renaud added
a two-run blast and Rivers collected a two-run double.
Bryant got just one run in the eighth despite loading the bases.
Junior Dave Muscatello (Hopkinton, Mass.) was hit by an Adams pitch
to drive in a run, but the Ravens righthander got a strikeout to
strand three Bulldogs on base. Bryant closed out the scoring with
an unearned run in the ninth as Alexander singled to lead off the
inning and later scored when sophomore Jeff Vigurs (South Windsor,
Conn./South Windsor) reached on an error.
2008 NCAA Division II Northeast
Regional
Championship All-Tournament Team
C – Jeff Vigurs, Bryant
1B – Steve Carr, Franklin Pierce
2B – Dave Muscatello, Bryant
SS – Scott Savastano, Franklin Pierce
3B – Gabriel Molina, Caldwell
OF – Kevin Renaud, Franklin Pierce
OF – Kevin Rivers, Franklin Pierce
OF – Pat O’Connor, Bryant
DH – Pat McKenna, Bryant
P – Brian Maloney, Franklin Pierce
P – Mike Adams, Franklin Pierce
Most Outstanding Player – Kevin Renaud, Franklin Pierce
