MILTON, Mass. – The fourth seeded Curry College baseball team held off number five seeded Nichols College by a final score of 3-2 in Game One of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Tournament at the Jack Vallely Diamond on Thursday afternoon. Curry moves to 15-18 on the season while Nichols falls to 21-18.
The Colonels got on the board first in their half of the first frame. StigErick McElhinny (Dracut, Mass.) tried to place a pitch and it was missed by Andrew Doll (Plantation, Fla.). The ball rolled to the backstop and the wild pitch allowed Nick Crivello (Millville, Mass.) to advance to third and Alex McLean (Eliot, Maine) scored from third to give Curry the early 1-0 lead.
The Colonels added to their lead in the fourth when Vincent LoPriore (Boston, Mass.) crushed his team-leading third home run of the season. The ball went over the fence in center to give Curry the 2-0 advantage.
The Bison were on the comeback trail in the top of the fifth as they tallied two runs. Their first run came by way of a Cam Cook (Phoenixville, Pa.) triple to right field, which scored Joe Assenza (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.). Nichols tied the game later in the frame, thanks to a Nick Roy (Middletown, Conn.) single through the right side to score Cook.
The Colonels broke the tie in the sixth when Matt Fogarty (Millis, Mass.) drew a bases loaded walk to send Justin Cage (Glendora, Calif.) to give Curry a 3-2 lead. That run proved to be the game winner as the Colonels took the game by that same score.
Crivello led Curry with a 2-for-3 day at the plate. Cage and LoPriore registered the other two hits for the Colonels.
Cook paced the Bison with two hits in four appearances. Five others recorded a hit apiece for the visitors.
Kevin Jones (Pembroke, Mass.) was credited with the win on the hill for Curry. The junior pitched two innings of relief, not giving up a single hit. David Griffin (Hanover, Mass.) closed out the final two innings to pick up his third save of the year.
McElhinney was given the loss, tossing five and a third innings. He surrendered three runs on three hits while striking out five and walking four.
Curry stays in the winner's bracket and will next face top seed Salve Regina on Saturday at noon in Newport. Nichols will look to avoid elimination on Saturday as they will wait to play the loser of Curry/Salve Regina. Both games will take place at Salve Regina.