Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Baseball team launched their 2023 season with a late night dual versus Suffolk University. The team took the field in their first game of their spring break trip down in Myrtle Beach at the Cal Ripken Experience. The Lancers came away with a commanding victory after a sixth inning scoring fest, taking the win with a final of 11-3.

The opening innings of the game were nearly mirror exact for both the Rams and the Lancers as neither team was able to get a man across home plate. As the top of the third came to a close the Lancers recorded two hits and left three runners stranded on base. An error from the mound by Worcester gave Suffolk a lead runner on second base who was sent home off a Rams single at the tail end of the third inning. Worcester State was unable to balance the count through the fourth and fifth inning, leaving a man on base at the conclusion of each. Suffolk doubled their lead off a second RBI by Painter in the bottom of the fifth leading to a Lancer pitcher change as junior Danny DiMassimo (Pittsfield, MA) stepped onto the mound in place of starting pitcher senior Ben Smith (Bourne, MA).

The sixth inning found Worcester cracking the Suffolk pitching code as senior Zach Landry (Mashpee, MA) singled to right field which sent senior Alex Sorenti-Burns (Sagamore Beach, MA) and graduate student Sean Devin (Lynn, MA) racing around the bags and past the catcher to tie the game up. Suffolk attempted a pitching change of their own to settle the inning, but senior Chris Ausiello (Tyngsboro, MA) connected for a deep ball into center field that found sophomore Tyler Smith (Leominster, MA) and Landry adding to the run total. With the bases loaded, a walk on junior Tom Halliwell (Leominster, MA) sent senior Zack Roberts (Northbridge, MA) across home plate and Devin taking a pitch to the body brought home Ausiello to send the Lancer up 6-2. Suffolk opted to swap pitchers for the second time in the game, but the Lancers still held the mound's number as Sorenti-Burns took the pitch count to four balls, walking in sophomore Xavier Quezada (Providence, RI) for the Lancers' seventh run. A double play closed out Worcester's time at bat in their prolific sixth inning action.

After making quick work of the Rams in the bottom of the sixth, the Lancers tacked on an additional run in the seventh as Tyler Smith scored off an error to extend the lead and another in the eighth off a Sorenti-Burns single to center that sent Halliwell home. An additional base runner scored as Tyler Smith singled up the middle allowing Sorenti-Burns to tag home plate to push the lead to 11-2 for Worcester. Suffolk managed to grab one more run in the last play of the game to close it out at 11-3.

Ben Smith went 4.2 innings for the Lancers, allowing seven hits, two runs and 10 strikeouts on the mound. Sorenti-Burns concluded the game with two runs, two rbis and a hit in the season-opening victory.

Worcester State (1-0, 0-0) will be back in action tomorrow night at 6pm when they take on Scranton in Myrtle Beach.