Baseball Defeats Keene State 6-4 on Saturday

AUBURNADALE, Fla. - The Suffolk baseball team defeated Keene State , 6-4 on Saturday afternoon as part of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. With the victory, Suffolk wraps up the annual spring trip with victories in eight of 10 contests.

Suffolk jumped out to an early 4-0 edge in the top half of the first inning. Brady Chant opened the game with a single to right and would later score the game's first run when Jon Lapolla brought him in with an infield single. Lapolla would come around to score later in the inning on a passed ball, before Kevin Belskie capped the inning off with a single to center that plated a pair of runs for the quick four run lead.

Suffolk would tack on a run in the following inning as Seth Coiley doubled with two outs bringing Rob Marks home who singled and later stole second, one of his two bags in the game.

Keene State would not go quietly however as they chipped away at the lead scoring one in the first as Devin Springfield drove in a run with one of his two hits in the game.

The Owls would tack on another run in the fifth, as Billy Hartmann doubled home Joe Libby making it a 5-2 game.

Things would get interesting in the eighth as Keene State scored two more runs. Daniel Sarah would send Springfield home with a sacrifice fly to center, before Libby reached on an infield error extending the inning making it a 5-4 ballgame. With two outs in the inning and runners on the corners, a pick to first would catch an Owls' baserunner breaking for second, but a heads up play by Lapolla as he threw across the diamond to third catching the tying run trying to break for home and would get Suffolk out of the jam and into the ninth with the lead.

Following a half hour rain delay, Suffolk would tack on an insurance run in the ninth when Jake Frasca brought home Coiley with a two out base hit to right giving Suffolk the 6-4 edge heading into the home half of the ninth.

Kevin Sinatra earned his second win of the season on the mound for Suffolk as he went the first five allowing just two runs on five hits. Mark Fusco provided a strong effort in middle relief holding Keene State scoreless for two innings before giving way to Cal Carroll who earned his second save on the year.

Suffolk held an 11-10 edge in the game in hits as four players finished the game with multi-hit efforts. Marks was 2-for-5 with a run scored. Lapolla was 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI, while Drew Carter finished 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored while Belskie picked up a pair of RBI going 2-for-4 at the plate.

Suffolk will fly back to Boston on Sunday with an 8-3 overall record and will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon for a 3:30pm non-league contest at Bridgewater State University.