Salem State Loses 7-5 to UMass Boston

Salem, Mass. -- Dan Mantoni (Northbridge, MA) went 2-for-4 with two RBI's as the Beacons of UMass Boston defeated the Vikings of Salem State 7-5 Wednesday afternoon at the Central Campus Baseball Field. The Beacons enhance their record to 16-12 while the Vikings drop to 13-15-1.

As the second batter of the game, Mantoni took Will Twiss (Middleton, MA) deep with a homerun over the leftfield fence to give the Beacons an early 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Kyle Boudrias (Medford, MA) brought in Ryan Olivo (Rochester, NY) with a single to increase the lead to 2-0. However, the Vikings got both runs back in the bottom of the inning as Dan Connors (Danvers, MA) drove in Richard Fecteau (Newbury, MA), who doubled over the right field fence in the beginning of the inning. With the next at bat, Joe White (Bellingham, MA) tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI-single.

After a rough first inning, Twiss cruised through the next two innings, retiring the side in
one-two-three fashion. However, after striking out the first batter in the fourth inning, Twiss gave up three consecutive base hits, including an RBI-double from Charlie Huegi (Sandy Hook, CT) that gave the Beacons a 3-2 edge. With Sal Frosceno (Derby, CT) on first, Twiss attempted to pick him off, but threw it past first baseman Alex Toomey (Beverly, MA). The error caused Huegi to score and Frosceno to advance to second for a 4-2 lead.  UMass Boston added another run in the fifth inning when Vikings' reliever Jacob Faulkingham (Old Saybrook, CT) dropped a ball at first base when covering the bag for Toomey on a ground ball. In the process, Mantoni scored after singling earlier in the inning due to the error to give the Beacons a 5-2 lead.  

In the fifth, Bobby Tramondozzi (Peabody, Mass.) relieved Beacons' starter Bryan Kaufman (Farmingdale, N.Y.) after Fecteau singled to centerfield. White brought Fecteau in with an RBI-triple that cut the deficit to 5-3. Next, Toomey struck out, but the ball got past the Beacon's catcher to score White to bring Salem State within one run at 5-4. Manny Garcia (Boston, MA) came on in relief in the eighth with a man on first and second. Garcia ran into trouble as he hit Brendan Greene (Winchester, MA) to load the bases. However, Garcia got Andre Deloury (Peabody, MA) to ground into a 5-1-3 double play to avoid allowing a run. With two outs, Garcia was able to force Fecteau to ground out to first to escape the inning unharmed.

UMass Boston added some padding to their lead in the top of the ninth inning when Dave Murphy (Plymouth, MA) doubled down the left field line to bring in Mantoni to take a 6-4 lead. Moments later, Nick Herzog (Riverhead, NY) hit a hard grounder to third, but reached first base as Connors throw from third was too low for Colton Fontaine (Newburyport, MA) to handle. With the ball past Fontaine at first, Murphy was able to score from second for  a 7-4 edge. Salem State cut the deficit to 7-5 with a Fontaine RBI-double, but it wouldn't be enough as Garcia struck out Tyler Galimi (Northbridge, MA) and Teghan Malionek (Salem, MA) to secure the 7-5 victory.

Twiss (0-5) drew the loss in 4.2 innings of work, allowing three runs on eight hits. Stephen Keskindis (Stoneham, MA) finished the final two innings, surrendering two runs (one earned) off one hit. Tramondozzi (4-1) earned the win in 2.2 innings giving up one runs on three hits. Garcia earned his fourth save.

The Beacons will travel to Worcester State on April 21^st to take on the Lancers at 3:30 p.m. Salem State resumes action on April 21^st as well when they travel to Salve Regina to face off against the Seahawks at 3:30 p.m.