Salem, Mass. – Sean Buckland (Lynn, Mass.) pitched eight innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts and Salem State opened the 2016 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Postseason Baseball Tournament with a 3-2 victory over the Westfield State Owls on Friday afternoon at the Central Campus Baseball Field. The top seeded Vikings will play second seed Mass Maritime at 12:30 pm tomorrow in the winner's bracket.  The fourth seeded Owls will play in an elimination game tomorrow morning at 9:30 am against third seeded Fitchburg State.

Richard Fecteau (Newbury, Mass.) led the charge with a 3-for-3 day at the plate with two runs scored while Alex Toomey (Beverly, Mass) knocked in the game-winning run with a clutch two-out single in the seventh.

Salem State (21-17-1) jumped on top early, scoring a pair of runs over the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead. Fecteau (Newbury, Mass.) laced a one-out double in the bottom of the first into left field and came home on a Joe White (Bellingham, Mass.) single. In the second, Andrew Deloury (Andover, Mass.) led-off with a double and scored on a fielder's choice by Mac Daniel Singleton (Everett, Mass.).

Buckland cruised into the third before running into trouble. Westfield State loaded the bases as Dan McCormack (Shelton, Conn.) and Danny DiMatteo (Dennis, Mass.) sandwiched hits around a walk by Tyler Adams (West Barnstable, Mass.) to load the bases. Stephen Brown (Harwich, Mass.) put the Owls on the scoreboard with a single to left. However, Buckland settled down and retired the side to prevent further damage as Salem State still led 2-1.

The Vikings increased their lead to 3-1 in the fifth. Fecteau led off with a bleeder to center and following a walk to Dan Connors (Danvers, Mass.), Alex Toomey (Beverly, Mass.) came through with a base hit to plate Fecteau. The Owls (19-19) scratched a run across in the seventh, taking advantage of two Salem State errors to draw within 3-2 as McCormack scored on an overthrow on a DiMatteo groundball to short.

Nate Marshall (Winsted, Conn.) replaced Barnes, who allowed three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts, in the bottom of the seventh. Salem State then proceeded to load the bases after back-to-back walks to Connors and Cedano, but Barnes worked out of the jam, getting a big strikeout to end the inning.
Pete Gonski (East Lyme. Conn.) relieved Buckland in the ninth, and after retiring the first two batters by strikeout, Mike Davis (Peabody, Mass.) made a nice running grab of a deep line drive to right centerfield by McCormack to end the game and give the Vikings a 3-2 victory.

Buckland improved to 8-0 on the season while Gonski notched his third save of the season. Barnes took the loss to slip to 3-2 on the year.  Tyler Beach (Quincy, Mass.) reached base three times, collecting two hits while McCormack finished with a hit and two runs scored for Westfield State.