Baseball: Iannazzo's walk-off hit lifts Raiders past Newbury, 11-10

(Nashua, N.H.) Rivier University junior Brett Iannazzo (Methuen, Mass.) smacked a two-out, two-strike single down the right-field line that cleared the bases and lifted the Raiders to a come from behind 11-10 win over Newbury College in non-conference action at Historic Holman Stadium. Iannazzo's hit capped a five-run rally in the bottom half of the ninth as Rivier improves to 6-22 on the season. Newbury falls to 12-21 with the loss.

Trailing 9-0, the Raiders mounted a slow methodic come back. It was led by junior James Magno (Gray, Maine) dazzled the Nighthawks with 5.2 innings of relief limiting the damage to just one unearned run on seven hits. Classmate David Pappalardo (Methuen, Mass.) smacked his first home run of the season – a majestic blast into the trees above the second tier of advertisements in left.

Senior Tyler Ferdinand (Middleboro, Mass.) then trimmed the deficit to 10-4 with a two-run triple in the fifth.

Two more runs were pushed across the plate in the seventh on a RBI base knock by freshman Frederick Kazalski (Dracut, Mass.) and a sacrifice fly from sophomore Brendan Sullivan (Manchester, N.H.) to make it a 10-6 ballgame.

In the pivotal ninth, Rivier loaded the bases on three consecutive hits before junior Jorge Martinez (Methuen, Mass.) drove in a run to make 10-8 on a throwing error. Fellow junior Kyle Flanagan (Bradford, Mass.) was inserted to pinch-run and scored the winning run on Iannazzo's walk-off single.

Senior Ty Seaton (Pawtucket, R.I.) was credited with the win as he pitched a scoreless ninth. Jim McGorry was saddled with the loss following a blown save opportunity.

Sophomore Brandon Thibault (Methuen, Mass.) went 4-for-4 for Rivier with two runs scored and a RBI. Kazalski finished 3-for-5 with four runs scored and Ferdinand added a 2-for-4, 2 RBI night. Martinez also recorded a multi-hit game finishing 2-for-5.

McGorry, Brian Cipolli and Dylan DiFillippo each had three-hit nights and Matthew Peluso finished with a 2-for-5 showing at the plate. Dante Serino pitched well for the Nighthawks as the left-hander was in line for his second win after tossing six innings allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out six.

Rivier is scheduled to be back inside Historic Holman Stadium tomorrow evening as they host Norwich University in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference double-header beginning at 5pm. Newbury will travel to Dean College on Thursday afternoon for their next scheduled contest.