SALISBURY, Md. – The top-seeded Salisbury University baseball team mashed six home runs in the second round of the 2013 CAC baseball tournament on Friday, dispatching fourth-seeded Frostburg State University, 22-5, at the SU Baseball Field.
Senior Nick Gentry and junior Quinn Griffith blasted two home runs apiece, while senior Evan Graci and sophomore Bobby Sanzone also homered for Salisbury (25-6). The Sea Gulls advance to face the second-seeded University of Mary Washington on Saturday at 9 a.m. The Eagles got past third-seeded Wesley College with a 6-5 win in 10 innings.
Gentry finished 4-for-5 with a career-high two home runs, four runs scored and six RBIs. He hit his third and fourth homers of the season, including a sixth-inning grand slam to right-center field. Griffith was 3-for-5 with his second and third jacks of the season and a career-best five RBIs as the Sea Gulls pinned 20-plus runs on the Bobcats (20-14) for the second time this season.
In all, eight players had hits and five drove in runs to lead the onslaught. Graci and Sanzone knocked in a career-high four runs each.
Salisbury, which came into the day having hit five home runs in 30 games this season, hit three two-run shots in the first three innings. The Gulls scored in all but the seventh inning, eliminating FSU from the tournament.
After Rob Jennings singled up the middle, scoring Kevin Kean in the top of the first for the Bobcats, Salisbury got Griffith and Sanzone blasts to right field for a 4-1 lead.
Griffith's second homer came in the third, a mammoth blast to center, that made it 6-1 before Austin Barefoot and Sanzone tacked on a run-scoring double-play ball and RBI single, respectively.
SU sent nine men to the plate in the fourth and saw three different pitchers. Graci delivered a two-run single off of Kenny Georgius and Kyle Hayman singled home Graci off of Zach Lawhorn for an 11-1 advantage. Five batters later, Sanzone singled to right off of Joe Markiewicz, scoring Hayman to push the lead to 13-1.
Up 15-2, Salisbury added another six runs, all of which were unearned. A Ryan McGuigan throwing error at shortstop loaded the bases with two out for Gentry, whose grand slam cleared the right-center field fence. Graci's homer to straightaway right field came two hitters later, after Griffith singled to left.
Sophomore lefty Dan Fein improved to 8-0 on the year, allowing two runs (one earned) on nine hits and a walk in six innings. He struck out three while his ERA, which was second best in the country coming into action, was raised to 0.49.
Pat Sapp and Jennings each finished 2-for-3 for Frostburg State.