Baseball Handles Fitchburg State, 10-4, in Game 1

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Suffolk baseball opened its final day of Florida action with a 10-4 decision over Fitchburg State Friday afternoon at Chain of Lakes Park at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 10 | Fitchburg State 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (5-5) | Fitchburg State (5-4)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk had to make up ground as Fitchburg State gained a one-run margin in the first frame. The Rams made their move in the third to level the playing field. With the bases loaded after Will Hopkins and Blase Cormier singled and Tim Brigham reached on a base on balls, Suffolk took advantage of an error by the Falcons' third baseman to bring in the tying run.

An inning later, the blue-and-gold grabbed the lead on another FSU mistake that allowed Shane Lake, who wore a pitch to opening the inning, to score the go-ahead run. Two batters later, Cormier's sac fly brought in Rich Gilbride to make it a 3-1 Suffolk score.

Balls over the fence made things interesting in the fifth. First Fitchburg State's Nicholas Coredau recorded a two-run jack to level the playing field at 3-3. After Lake plated Trevor Lee on a RBI single, Gilbride cleared the bags with a grand slam to push the margin to 8-3.

Suffolk's scoring carried into the sixth as Lake extended the Rams' advantage to seven, 10-3, behind a two-run single.

The Falcons looked to make up ground in the top of the seventh and did just that. With two outs, Coredeau's single cut the margin to six, but Suffolk's defense backed up Kevin Sinatra on the mound and kept Fitchburg there to secure the 10-4 victory.

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Sinatra went the full seven on the hill. He put together a four-run, seven-hit, two-walk, four-strikeout day.

• Three different Falcons took the hill. Richard Sharp suffered the setback after giving up three runs on three hits and three walks. The starter sat down four hitters in 4.0 innings.

• Andrew Dunn (1.0 IP, 5R, 4H, 1BB) and Adam Somers (1.0 IP, 2R, 1H, 1BB, 2K) came out of the pen for the Falcons.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Gilbride collected four RBI on his lone hit of the day, a grand slam, and scored a pair of runs.

• Lake went 2-for-2 at the dish with three RBI, two runs scored and one walk.

• Hopkins finished with a pair of hits, one run and one stolen base.

• Cormier collected one hit, one RBI and one sac fly.

• Lee scored two runs, brought in one and swiped one bag.

• Logan Heckman and Ben Isaak each had one hit and one run to their credit.

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk met Fitchburg State for the first time in the Anthony Del Prete era.

• The Rams improved to 16-5 all-time versus the Falcons.

• Suffolk defeated FSU for the first time since 2012.

• Sinatra put together his second complete-game effort of the season to move to 2-0 on the year.

• Gilbride knocked his second dinger of the year and first grand slam of his career.

• Lake registered a career-best three RBI.

POST-GAME PIC

COMING UP
Suffolk wraps up action at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational with game two of the doubleheader against Fitchburg State.