Baseball battles but falls twice to Johnson & Wales

(Nashua, New Hampshire) The Rivier University Baseball team finished their 2014 Great Northeast Athletic Conference schedule with a pair of losses this afternoon to visiting Johnson and Wales University. The Raiders are now 3-26 and finish with a 1-13 GNAC mark while JWU improves to 27-12 and 9-5 in the conference.

Game One: Johnson & Wales University 9, Rivier University 1 (Final)

Freshman Drew Neely (Lakeland, Florida) took the ball for game one and allowed the Wildcats to score six runs (three earned) on nine hits as the Raiders fell 9-1 in the opening game.

Junior Lucas Palma (Bristol, Conn.) gave up one run in his only inning of work while sophomore Spencer Aguiar (Malden, Mass.) tossed a 1-2-3 scoreless 7th.

JWU was led on the mound by junior Shawn Haugh (Tampa, Florida) who baffled the Rivier hitters over his complete game performance. The right-hander allowed just four hits and one unearned run while striking out six on the afternoon.

Sophomore Taylor Black (West Springfield, Mass.) recorded two of the team's four hits as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Junior David Cusack (Newburyport, Mass.) and freshman Zachary St. Cyr (Rochester, NH) recorded the other two hits for Rivier.

The Wildcats' freshman Carlos Sanabria (Pawtucket, RI) led the offensive attack as he went 3-for-4 with a RBI and two runs scored. Senior Alex Pezzuto (Hastings, NY) collected 2 hits (2-for-4) and both senior Tyler Pacheco (East Hampstead, NH) and freshman Brandon Cesino (North Scituate, RI) added a pair of RBIs in the win.

Game Two: Johnson & Wales University 2, Rivier University 1 (Final)

The second game of the afternoon was the best one as both starting pitchers matched each other pitch for pitch. Rivier sophomore Jon Chotkowski (Tewksbury, Mass.) pitched a complete game as he limited the Wildcats to just two runs on six hits while striking out two. JWU senior Aldo Morales (Havana, Cuba) went six innings giving up one run on five hits and retiring five by way of the K before letting Tim Ashworth earn his fifth save of the season.

JWU was able to get just two sacrifice flies from Sanabaria and sophomore Tom Elkow (Morganville, NJ) in the fifth and sixth innings, respectfully, off of Chotkowski.

The Raiders answered back in the home half of the sixth as sophomore Jeremy Ball (Swanzey, NH) lined a RBI single back up the box to plate classmate Marc Medeiros (Arlington, Mass.).

Medeiros finished the game going 2-for-3 and Black added another 2-for-3 night in the tough game two loss.

Freshman Chris Baldwin (Pawtucket, RI) went 2-for-2 to lead the JWU offense in game two.

Rivier will close out their 2014 season on Friday night as they host Wentworth Institute of Technology in a 7:05pm non-conference contest at Historic Holman Stadium. JWU has earned the fourth seed in the upcoming GNAC Tournament and will host fifth seeded Albertus Magnus College on Tuesday afternoon.