MILTON, Mass. – The Curry College baseball team split its conference-opening doubleheader with visiting Anna Maria, capturing the opener, 4-3 in eight innings, before dropping the nightcap, 5-0. The Colonels are now 5-6 overall and 1-1 in The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC), while the AMCATS now stand at 8-6 overall and 3-1 in league play.

GAME ONE
Box Score

Anna Maria scored all of its runs in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead, highlighted by a two-RBI double to center field by Jean Batista (Worcester, MA). Curry slowly chipped away at the lead, scoring a run in the third, fourth and seventh innings to pull even at 3-3 and send the game to extra innings. The run in the third inning came after Shayne McDonald (Cambridge, MA) singled to left field to bring David Stephens (Deerfield Beach, FL) home. The fourth inning run was scored by Brad Hawn (Chino Hills, CA) on a double steal. In the seventh inning, Stevens singled to center field to bring Carlos Cornejo (Lake Forest, CA) home.

In the top of the eighth inning, Matt Drew (Waltham, MA) held the AMCATS hitless. In the bottom of the eighth with one out, Hawn belted a doubled to right field. Anna Maria intentionally walked clean-up hitter Matt Rodriguez (Quincy, MA), but threw a wild pitch in the process, advancing Hawn to third base. The following batter, Sam Barron (Florence, MA), hit a fielder’s choice to short that plated Hawn with the winning run.

Drew allowed just four hits while striking out two in eight innings to improve to 1-1 on the season. Jeff Scafidi (Worcester, MA) pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits and three runs while recording four strikeouts. Reliever Tim Henderson (Wayland, MA) took the loss for the AMCATS to fall to 0-1. He gave up a hit, a walk and a run in his lone inning of work.

GAME TWO
Box Score

In the second game, Anna Maria took advantage of a pair of Curry errors to grab a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Sophomore outfielder Mike Gaurnieri (Wallingford, CT) came up with the two-out, two-run single. The AMCATS padded their lead in the fourth and sixth inning, with all three RBI coming off the bat of Jeff Kodys (Holden, MA), including a two-run home run in the sixth inning.

Brendon Tivnan (Worcester, MA) picked up the complete-game, two-hit shutout to improve to 3-0, recording six strikeouts in seven innings of work. Matt O’Neill (Milton, MA) absorbed the loss and fell to 0-2 on the season, giving up five hits, a walk and three earned runs, while striking out three in six innings pitched.

Curry returns to action on Monday, hosting Western New England College in a 2:00 p.m. doubleheader. Anna Maria travels to Fitchburg State on Tuesday for a single, nine-inning non-conference game at 3:30 p.m.