Dukes Losing Streak Extended to Six
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Starters Louie Bernardini (Wheaton College) and Jared Balbach (Sacred Heart) kept both teams scoreless until the third inning when Blue Sox catcher Sean Killeen (Trinity College) hit a leadoff home run to deep center field for the 1-0 lead.
The Dukes would answer in the bottom of the third inning when Jake Rosenbeck (Buffalo) reached on an error by third baseman Jeremy Nowak (Stony Brook) that scored Craig Hertler (San Jose State) to tie the ballgame at one apiece. The run ended a 16-inning scoring drought for Pittsfield that spanned across three games. The bats continued in the fourth when the Dukes would add two runs as the Blue Sox would commit two runs in the inning.
Louie Bernardini pitched well through the first four innings but allowed another run in the fifth inning Alex Wyche (Alexander Baldwin Agricultural College) had an RBI groundout to first to close the gap to 3-2. Matt Adams (Slippery Rock) made a sliding stop to his left then hustled and slide into first for the out as the run scored.
Jake Sabol (Central Michigan) relieved Bernardini in the sixth inning and ran into trouble as Craig Turner (Southern Wesleyan) hit an two-run single to right scoring two runs and giving Holyoke the 4-3 lead.
The Dukes rallied quickly in the bottom half off reliever Charles Williams (Lipscomb University) and tied up the game. A sacrifice fly from Hertler to right field scored pinch hitter Chris Edmondson from third and it would hold as the last score until the team teams entered extra innings.
Both teams did have opportunities to score over the final few frames. Holyoke had two runners caught stealing in the top of the 10th inning and Pittsfield left runners on first and third as J.T. Musso (BYU) struck out looking on the outside corner to end the 10th as well.
In the 11th inning, a one-out error from Jake Rosenbeck on a throw to first allowed Sean Killeen to reach. Then, on a pickoff attempt to first, the ball got away, enabling Killeen to make it to second with one out. Reliever Zach Anderson (Buffalo) in his first inning of work, then struck out Alex Wyche and walked Jeremy Nowak.
With first and second and two outs, Shevis Shima came through in the clutch producing a bloop RBI single to left field scoring Killeen to give Holyoke the 5-4 lead.
Holyoke kept James White (UNC Greensboro) in for the 11th and he sent down the Dukes 1-2-3 concluding with a strikeout of Jake Rosenbeck to end the game.
Following the strikeout, a few players starting arguing with the Blue Sox reliever as both dugouts emptied onto the field. No punches were thrown and players left the field a few moments later.
With the win, Holyoke has won its last three games and improves to 6-6 while Pittsfield drops to 5-7 with their sixth straight loss. Holyoke plays again Monday night as they host Team China with Rob Gariano (Fairfield) as the probable starter.
The Dukes will have both Monday and Tuesday off before hosting North Shore on Wednesday with Kyle Vazquez (Franklin Pierce) on the hill.
