BIDDEFORD, Maine – Due to complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Baseball Championship Series between Salve Regina and Endicott that was scheduled for this weekend has been canceled to ensure the highest possible level of student-athlete health and safety.
As the higher seed of the competing teams, Salve Regina will be declared the CCC Tournament Champion and earn the conference’s automatic qualifier into the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
Salve Regina wins Pod A
NEWPORT, R.I. (May 2, 2021) - Sophomore Tyler Cannoe (Schenectady, N.Y.) belted his second home run of the season and delivered a grand slam to cap off a seven-run sixth inning as Salve Regina University defeated Roger Williams University, 12-5, in the deciding game of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Pod A Finals for baseball at Reynolds Field. The Seahawks (12-4-1) advance to their fifth consecutive championship series and will host Endicott College next weekend (May 8-9) after the Gulls had swept a pair with Suffolk University on Saturday to eliminate the Rams from the Pod B Finals.
In today's elimination game, Seahawk starter Michael Mathews (West Hartford, Conn.) allowed two runs in the first inning as Brandon Jenkins (East Bridgewater, Mass.) had an opposite field triple against the shift that drove in Tyler Cedeno (Maynard, Mass.) before a wild pitch helped Jenkins cross the plate. In the Seahawk first, Sean O'Malley (Darien, Conn.) reached on an RBI fielder's choice that scored Jared Beniers (Abington, Mass.) and the O'Malley and Dylan Ketch (Clinton, Conn.) executed a double-steal with Ketch scoring the tying run.
Anthony Cieszko (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) singled home Beniers and Matt D'Amato (Midland Park, N.J.) in the third as Salve Regina took a 4-2 lead over Roger Williams (20-11). D'Amato's opposite field single down the left field line in the fourth plated Michael Breen (Auburn, Mass.) for a 5-2 advantage before George Somers (Lake Hopatcong, Conn.) got a run back for the Hawks with a solo home run in the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, D'Amato reached on a safety squeeze and scored Zach Barlok (Cheshire, Conn.) from third. Ketch was plunked with the bases loaded and Breen cross the plate. Cieszko's grounder to first baseman Jenkins scored D'Amato for an 8-3 lead. After O'Malley walked, Cannoe greeted relief pitcher Anthony Sapienza's (North Andover, Mass.) first pitch and launched it to left center field for his first career grand slam.
The nation's leading base stealer, Joey Gulino (Meriden, Conn.) of Roger Williams, struck a two-run homer in the seventh for the final score.
Mathews worked 3.1 innings with four strikeouts and just the two runs allowed in the first frame. His successor, lefty Dominic Perachi (Washington Depot, Conn.) went a similar distance and struck out six Hawks to earn the win (2-1). Andrew Roman (Monson, Mass.) finished the final 2.1 frames and did not allow a baserunner while recording three strikeouts.
Sophomore Dan Massaro (Fairfield, Conn.) started on the mound for the Hawks and took the loss (2-3) while going 2.1 innings and allowing four earned runs. Reliever Chris Flynn (Naugatuck, Conn.), who had not allowed an earned run all season in 11 appearances and 13.0 inning pitched (that included 27 strikeouts), was touched for six runs today with four charged as earned.
Salve Regina has won three of the last four conference titles, including the last one in 2019 against Roger Williams. Seahawks took the 2016 and 2017 crowns against the Gulls, the former in Beverly, Mass., before the next year sweeping Endicott on a Friday afternoon on Reynolds Field.