RINDGE, N.H. – Senior starter
Josh Garran (Old Tappan, NJ/Northern Valley Regional) picked the right time to throw the best game of his career. Assisted by some late heroics, he led the Southwest-Division No. 2 Pace University baseball team to a 2-1 upset-victory over nationally-ranked No. 1/3 (Collegiate Baseball/NCBWA) and Northeast-Division No. 1 Franklin Pierce University Thursday afternoon at Franklin Pierce's Pappas Field in the opener of Northeast-10 Conference Championship Weekend.
With the historic win over the nation's top team, Pace advances to the winner's bracket of the NE-10 Tournament, and will take on Northeast No. 2, and nationally-ranked No. 4/8 Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) on Friday at 10 a.m. SNHU advanced to Saturday morning's game after defeating Southwest No. 4 College of Saint Rose, 9-7, in Thursday's first contest. Franklin Pierce and Saint Rose went head-to-head in Thursday evening's elimination game, and Saint Rose made it two Southwest Division teams heading to Friday, pulling off a 6-4 victory to upset the tournament hosts eliminate them from title contention.
Pace improves to 30-20 on the season with the win, which marks the fifth 30-win season for Head Coach
Henry Manning in his 16 years at the helm. Franklin Pierce takes just its fifth loss of the season to fall to 45-5.
Garran went the complete nine innings, giving up just one run and striking out six batters to pick up the biggest win of his four-year career at Pace. The 2016 NE-10 All-Conference Third Teamer improves to 7-3 on the year with the win.
With the game tied up at 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Franklin Pierce third baseman Jay Jabs, the now two-time Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year, hit a long fly ball to deep center field with a runner on and two outs. Junior center fielder
John Kukura (New City, NY/Clarkstown South) sprinted full speed toward the wall, catching the ball right before crashing into the fence for an amazing play to end the inning.
With one out in the top of the ninth, Kukura continued his clutch play by roping a double off the left-field wall. Senior second baseman
Andrew Coffey (Greenwich, CT/Old Avon Farms) then smacked a single up the middle, bringing Kukura in to score to give Pace a 2-1 lead in the last inning.
Designated hitter Chris LaVorgna led off the bottom of the ninth by legging out an infield single on a close play at first. Right fielder Max DiTondo then fouled out to senior third baseman
Nick LoBello (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) for the first out of the inning. With two strikes on the next batter, LaVorgna tried to steal second base, but was gunned down at second by senior catcher
Frank Mayo (Middletown, NY/Minisink Valley) to leave the Ravens down to their final strike. First baseman Matthew O'Herron kept the game going with another infield single. It did not take long for Garran to get out of it though, as the next batter popped up to LoBello at third to end the game.
Jabs got things going for the Ravens in the bottom of the fourth, leading off the inning with a solo home run to right to give the home team a 1-0 lead. With two away in the top of the fifth, graduate shortstop
Brett Bittiger (Saylorsburg, PA/Pius X) kept the inning alive with a single to center. Kukura then legged out a slow bouncer to third, and Coffey began a big day with an RBI single through the left side, bringing in Bittiger to tie the game.
Pace scored the winning run off of reliever Tanner Bird, dropping his record to 8-1 on the season. Bird came into the weekend as the national leader with a 0.53 ERA. The Setters scored their first run off of starter Anthony Matarazzo, who entered the game ranked sixth in Division II with a 1.49 ERA, and has a 10-0 record on the season.
Coffey finished up going 3-for-4 with both RBIs for Pace in the enormous victory Thursday afternoon. Kukura scored the winning run after going 2-for-5 with a double. Bittiger scored the other run in a 1-for-4 effort. Mayo hit 2-for-4, and the Northeast-10 All-Conference First-Team catcher threw out both runners who attempted to steal on him, including Division II steals leader Justin Brock.
Jabs went 2-for-3 for Franklin Pierce, knocking in and scoring the only run of the game for the Ravens on his fourth-inning home run. O'Herron hit 3-for-4 with a double, while Brock batted 2-for-4.
The Setters at SNHU will play in Game 8 of the Northeast-10 Conference Championships Friday, May 13, at 10 a.m. at Pappas Field. The winner will advance to Saturday's Championship, while the loser will take on Saint Rose in the next elimination game of the tournament.
For all information regarding Pace baseball, log on to
www.PaceUAthletics.com and follow Pace Athletics on Facebook (
T-Bone, Official Mascot of Pace University Athletics) and Twitter (
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@PaceBaseball).
NOTES:
Franklin Pierce is ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll as the No. 1 team, and No. 3 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Poll. Southern New Hampshire ranks No. 4 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll, and No. 8 in the NCBWA Poll.
