Baseball: Pappalardo's blast sends Rivier past Elms College

(Fort Myers, Fla.) Sophomore Kyle Flanagan (Bradford, Mass.) tossed 7.0 innings to earn his first colligate win as the Rivier University Baseball team defeated Elms College, 8-3 this afternoon at the Lee County Player Development Complex in Fort Myers, Fla. The win is the first of the season for the Raiders as they are just 1-2 on the year while the Blazers fall to 0-6.

Flanagan was brilliant on the hill as he only allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits while issuing just two walks and striking out a hitter. Freshman Marcus Ferdinand (Middleboro, Mass.) and senior Jon Chotkowski (Tewksbury, Mass.) pitched the final two frames to complete the win.

Offensively the Raiders' bats came to life as they pounded out 13 hits including junior Tyler Ferdinand (Middleboro, Mass.) going 3-for-5 with a RBI. Senior Jacob Rayner (Billerica, Mass.) knocked in four RBI and classmates Adam Arkell (Dover, N.H.) and Drew Neely (Lakeland, Fla.) recorded multi-hit games. The big blast came from sophomore David Pappalardo (Methuen, Mass.) who blasted a first pitch offering deep over the left field fence in the four-run eighth for his first collegiate home run. He finished the afternoon going 2-for-5.

The game was tied a 2 until the sixth inning when Neely scampered home on a wild pitch to give the Raiders a lead they would not relinquish.

Elms was led by Brian Hungerford and Andy Vasquez who each went 2-for-3 and Kevin Banas suffered the loss (0-1).

Rivier will enjoy an off day tomorrow before returning to action on Wednesday morning against a talented Alvernia University squad. Game time is set for 9am at the Lee County Player Development Complex.