Maritime Scuttles Owls in 10th in MASCAC Tournament; Owls to Play Friday AM in Bridgewater, Mass.

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- AJ Luciano's single back through the box scored John Tropea in the 10^th inning to lift #3 seed Mass Maritime to a 6-5 win and a mild upset of #2 Westfield State in MASCAC Baseball tournament game at Bud and Jim Hagan Field on Thursday afternoon.

Mass Maritime advances in the winner's bracket to play top-seeded Bridgewater at Bridgewater, Mass., tomorrow at 3 p.m.    Westfield slips into the loser's bracket and will face #5 Salem State at 11:00 a.m. in Bridgewater on Friday.  Salem fell 2-0 to Bridgewater today.

Today's game was a back-and-forth affair.   Mass Maritime (24-15) got a run in the top of the first, aided by a pair of Owls' errors, with Aidan Henderson driving in Frank Aten with the first run of the game.

Westfield (25-15) got its offense started quickly in the bottom half of the inning when 2-hole hitter Samuel Palmer yanked a solo home run to left field.   Buccaneers' left fielder Tropea tried to scale the fence to make a play on the ball, but it cleared the wall to tied the game 1-1.  The Owls tacked on three more runs in the frame on with a 2-RBI single from Damien Maniscalco the other big blow.

Maritime answered with RBI singles from Frank Aten, a Zach Sylvia triple into the right field that eluded the dive of the Owls' Palmer, and another RBI single from Brett Velzis to tie the game at 4-4, before Owls starter Shane Bogli worked out of the inning with a strikeout of Tropea to end the Buccaneers' threat.

Bogli turned in a gritty performance, working into the sixth inning in his first start in a month settling in after a rocky start.

In the sixth, Mass Maritime mustered one more run off Bogli as Luciano singled to start the inning, was bunted to second, advanced to third on Aten's base hit, and scored on a fielder's choice groundout by Zach Syliva to give Maritime a 5-4 lead.

Buccaneers starter Brodey Tinkham turned in strong work after the first inning, holding the Owls without a hit through the seventh, when he was lifted for Sam Huffman.

Westfield got to Huffman in the eighth, as Ethan Day singled and was sacrificed to second, and Nolan Florence ripped an RBI double to left to tie the game at 5-5.

Westfield loaded the bases in the ninth but couldn't score.

Closer Brendan Baiardi worked the 10^th for the Mariners, getting two out before Westfield pinch hitter Jacob Butler reached on an error, but with Butler the potential tying run at second, Baiardi picked the outside corner for a called strike three against Westfield's Zack Graveline to end the game.

Bairdi picked up his seventh save of the season, while Huffman (2-1) got the win in relief.  Westfield's Matt Motyka (1-2) took the loss in relief after working the 9^th and 10^th innings.

Day was the only Owl with two hits on the afternoon.  Aten, Henderson and Luciano were all repeat hitters for the Bucs.