Worcester, MA- After weather and shifting schedule played havoc with the Lancers Owls meetings over the last week Worcester State (13-5, 4-1) will now make a return trip to Westfield this afternoon to take the mound first as the home team in the traveling series. The Owls and Lancers met last Friday where each team managed to claim a win with today's game being the deciding factor in the season series between the two teams.
Final
Worcester State: 2
Westfield State: 5
How it Happened:
Despite being the designated home team the Lancers would travel to Westfield to take on the Owls in this conference matchup. Both pitchers for the Lancers and Owls would start off strong giving both team's batters limited opportunities to gain offensive momentum. The Lancers would start to apply some pressure on the Owls in the bottom of the 2nd when the bases would become loaded but Owls would be able to alleviate the pressure and get out of the inning with the score still 0-0.
Both teams would stay locked in on the defensive end, not allowing either team to get themselves on the board. This was showcased through a fantastic grab by junior outfielder Kevin Doyle (Bridgewater, MA) who robbed the Owls, preventing them going up two in the top of the fifth and leading to a leading momentum as Worcester put the first run on the board. First year Chris Mondesir (Roslindale, MA) nails a double that edged the third base line to stay fair and send in sophomore Ryan Jewett (Natick, MA).
The bottom of the sixth would see Worcester double their lead as junior Nathan Thurber (Framingham, MA) would send out a sacrifice fly with one out to bring senior Anthony Iamarone (Providence, RI) in for the 2-0 Lancer lead. Westfield would cut into the lead at the top of the seventh. The 2-1 game would hold through to the ninth where Westfield would get a double and single to tie the game up at 2-2. The Owls would tack on one more run off of a RBI single putting the score to 3-2 completely flipping the momentum to Westfield who would then use some fielding bobbles to claim a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the inning in a last chance Lancer bid to reclaim the lead and with it, the victory. The Owls instead managed to make quick work of the bottom of the inning to complete the ninth inning comeback win.
What's Next:
With the ever changing weather of the Spring season, the Worcester State Baseball team (13-6, 4-2) will return to action on Friday in a schedule shift that will send them to Framingham on Friday for a 12:30pm start in the double header series of the day before hosting Framingham at home on Monday at 3pm.