SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Western New England (No. 20 D3baseball.com, No. 29 ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper) used strong starting pitching on Thursday to sweep a Commonwealth Coast Conference baseball doubleheader from visiting Salve Regina, 1-0 and 3-1, at Pat Ricci Field at Trelease Park. The Golden Bears improve to 9-5 overall, including 2-0 in the CCC, while the Seahawks' five-game win streak entering this afternoon comes to a halt and they fall to 10-5 and 2-2 in the conference.
On the strength of two flawless pitching performances by seniors Mike Lospinuso (7 IP, 3 hits, 5 K, 0 ER) and Jeff Richardson (6 IP, 7 hits, 3 K, 0 ER), the Golden Bears lowered their team earned-run average from 3.05 to 2.80.
Vincent Roth, the Seahawks' starter in the opener, pitched impressively as well, going six innings and allowing only one earned run. Salve's offense, however, was never able to figure out Lospinuso (W, 3-0) in his complete-game effort.
The only scoring in the pitchers' duel came in the third inning, when Western New England senior co-captain Matt Anthonis tripled down the right field line to score junior Jeff Schult from first base. Anthonis' two-out RBI would prove to be the difference in the one-run final.
Salve Regina was unable to generate any offense in the second game, either, but did get on the scoreboard in the seventh inning against Golden Bears sophomore reliever Nick Salerno for its only run of the day. Tyler Colby singled up the middle to bring home Ryan Kelly, who reached base when he was hit by a pitch, then stole second and went to third on a groundout.
Left-fielder Ryan Sweenor (3-3) and shortstop Anthony Conte (2-3) were the lone bright spots for the Seahawks offense.
Western New England produced four singles in the bottom of the first inning, including a run batted in by sophomore first baseman Steve Buckley to give WNE a 1-0 advantage. The Golden Bears added another run in the second inning when senior Kyle McKelvey scored on a Schult (2-3, RBI) ground out, and another in the fourth on an RBI single by senior Mike Rubino.
Salerno earned his second save of the season, striking out the leadoff hitter to begin the seventh and throwing out clean-up hitter Dominic Di Sano at first base to end the game.
The Golden Bears' collective pitching performance today was especially impressive when considering the fact that Salve Regina had scored an astounding 72 runs during its five-game win streak heading into the twinbill.
Western New England will look to continue its homestand with non-conference contests next Tuesday against Suffolk and Wednesday against UMass-Boston. Both games are scheduled for a 3:30 pm start. Salve Regina will return home for games against Becker and Southern Vermont on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.