Westfield, MA - Westfield State was able to hold on for the 5-3 victory on Thursday afternoon as a late Albertus rally came up short in the ninth inning. Westfield State University jumped out to an early 4-2 lead and held on to defeat Albertus Magnus College, 5-3, in a nonconference baseball game on Thursday, April 7.
The Falcons were defeated despite outhitting Westfield 11-6 and holding them hitless for five complete innings until a solo homerun in the eighth inning. Albertus took an early 2-0 first-inning lead on a two-run single by sophomore outfielder Matt Caputo (East Haven, CT/East Haven). Westfield State collected half of their six hits in the bottom of the first when they scored three runs. Pete Grillo walked and Matt Kelly and Andrew Medeiros both singled through the left side to load the bases. Grillo scored on a wild pitch, Kelly crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Alex Cloutier and Medeiros scored on an RBI single by Kevin Greene.
Westfield scored a run in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead. Kelly clubbed a two-out triple to left-center field and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Albertus made the score 4-3 on a fifth-inning solo home run by freshman infielder Patrick Dornfried (Berlin, CT/Northwest Catholic). The Falcons would stage a ninth inning rally with back to back singles with one out in the ninth inning. The final two outs were a strike out looking and a groundout to the pitcher.
Freshman outfielder Zak Sokolis (Meriden, CT/Maloney) and senior infielder Robert Bengivengo (Oxford, CT/Seymour) each had two singles for Albertus.
Albertus drops to 3-12, 0-0 GNAC while Westfield State improves to 8-12 overall.
The Falcons host Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opponent Emerson College for a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 pm.