DUDLEY, Mass. (April 11) – The Nichols College baseball team took on the Salve Regina Seahawks Sunday afternoon in a conference double-header. In the opening game it was a pitchers’ duel between senior Tim Smith (Plainfield, Conn.) of Nichols and sophomore Nicholas Politelli of Salve Regina with Salve Regina coming out on top 4-3. In the second, the teams combined for 26 hits, with the Seahawks recording a 9-4 victory. Salve Regina improves to 15-12 overall and 8-6 in the TCCC, while Nichols drops to 9-16 overall and 5-9 in conference play.
John Micciche (Holbrook, Mass.) went 3-for-7 with an RBI for the Bison, while senior Cale LaCasse (Danielson, Conn.) was 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored. The Bison hit from every spot in the lineup in game two.
Riley Diaz led the Seahawks with a 4-for-6 day at the plate, a double and six RBI. Designated hitter Brendan Tapley was 2-for-4 with three RBI in the second game.
The Seahawks put a pair of runs on the board in the second inning on a two-run single to left-center by senior catcher Dave Miller. The runners scored from second and third after being hit by pitches in consecutive at bats and advancing on a groundout. The Bison picked up a run in the fifth off of a Dan Smith (Verona, N.J.) sacrifice squeeze bunt, which scored LaCasse and made the score 2-1.
The Seahawks added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth on a two-out, two-run single by Diaz to push the score to 4-1, but left the bases loaded to end the inning. In the bottom half of the sixth Nichols pushed across another run to get back within two runs heading into the last inning. The run in the sixth came from Micciche’s RBI single, scoring the runner from second base.
Salve Regina threatened to score in the seventh with runners on second and third with one out, but Smith proceeded to strike out the next batter and get the final batter to ground out to second base. In the bottom of the seventh the Bison began their battle back with a hits batsman and a walk, followed by a sacrifice bunt. Then junior Zac Johnson (Wakefield, R.I.) hit an RBI groundout to shortstop and moved the runner from second to third. With two outs, a runner on third and the Bison down 4-3, senior Al Montalto (Wilmington, Mass.) came to the plate and hit a hard, deep line-drive to centerfield which was caught on a dive to end the game.
No single player had more than one hit for either team in the game, as each team recorded six hits. Nichols committed one error and left five on base in the game while the Seahawks were errorless in the field and left seven on base.
Politelli earned the win for Salve, going the complete seven innings and giving up three runs on six hits, four walks and struck out three. Tim Smith picked up the loss for the Bison as he went the distance as well and gave up four runs, three earned, on six hits and two walks and struck out six batters.
In the second game the Seahawks first four batters all scored on a pair of two-run singles from Diaz and Tapley. The Bison went into their first at-bats already down by four.
The Seahawks added another run before the Bison could break through for their first run of the game. Diaz hit a sacrifice fly in the second to make the score 5-0.Nichols broke through in the third on a sacrifice fly from senior George Sergi (Blackstone, Mass.) that scored Montalto. Each team added a run in the sixth to make the score 6-2 and keep the Bison’s deficit to four runs.
Salve Regina secured their lead by scoring twice more in the sixth. The two runs came thanks to an Alexander Melcher sacrifice fly and another RBI single from Diaz. With the score standing at 8-2, Nichols came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth. They added one run on a sacrifice fly to cut into the lead, but the Seahawks got that run right back on a ground rule home run after the ball was caught at the centerfield fence by LaCasse, who fell over the fence and out of play.
Craig Silva improved to 6-1 on the year with the complete-game effort for the Seahawks, fanning five while allowing 12 hits. Bison starter JC LeBarron (Bennington, Vt.) took the loss in one inning of work, allowing four runs on five hits while whiffing two. Scott Leecock (Palmer, Mass.) finished out the game by striking out one while allowing 10 hits and four runs.
Nichols is back in action on April 14th in a 2p.m. TCCC twinbill at Anna Maria. Salve Regina travels to Roger Williams for a conference pair the same day at 2 p.m.
Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score