Cote tosses scoreless, hitless fifth

Box Score

BROCKTON, Mass. (June 5, 2009) – Five members of the Franklin Pierce University baseball team participated for the College Division team at the 35th Annual New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association New England College Baseball All-Star Game on Thursday night. The University Division came away with an 11-0 victory at Campanelli Stadium. The College Division team was comprised of Division II and Division III players from across New England, while the University Division featured players from the region’s Division I institutions.

Senior left-hander Tom Cote (Swanzey, N.H./Univ. of Massachusetts) had the most success of any Raven present, as he faced three batters and pitched a hitless top of the fifth inning. Cote hit Sacred Heart’s Jeff Hanson with a pitch before getting Kevin McAvoy of Maine to fly out to left field. Cote then struck out Jeff Heppner of Sacred Heart while Hanson was caught stealing to end the inning.

Offensively, three Franklin Pierce players combined to post an 0-for-4 evening at the plate. Senior left fielder Ted Lerud (Hampden, Mass./Minnechaug Regional) saw action of the bench as the designated hitter and worked a lead-off walk off of Massachusetts' Mitch Clegg in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lerud also struck out against David Erickson of Connecticut in the ninth.

Freshman catcher Mike Dowd (East Bridgewater, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) went 0-for-2 off the bench on Thursday night. He bounced into a fielder’s choice behind Lerud in the seventh and struck out in the ninth.

Meanwhile, sophomore designated hitter Derek Ingui (Sterling, Mass./Wachusett Regional) played the final four innings of the game at third base for the College Division. He grounded out to second base against Clegg in the eighth in his only plate appearance of the night.

Sophomore right-hander Rob Nicholas (Northboro, Mass./Algonquin Regional) came into the game to start the ninth inning and had a rough go of it. He was touched up for eight runs on six hits over one-third of an inning.

Junior right-hander Kyle Vazquez (Berlin, Conn./Berlin) was selected to the College Division team, but did not participate in the game.

For the University Division, Peter Fatse of Connecticut went 3-for-5, drove in a run and scored twice to lead the way while Jim Macdonald of Massachusetts hit 2-for-5 and scored a run as the team pounded out 11 runs on 13 hits. Matt Perry of Holy Cross, Pete Greskoff of Brown and Sean Parker of Central Connecticut State all drove in two runs each on the evening. Five pitchers combined to throw a five-hit shutout for the University Division.

The Ravens (37-18) captured their third Northeast-10 Conference regular season title in four years earlier this spring and followed that with their third consecutive Northeast-10 Championship title, which was the program’s fourth in five years. Franklin Pierce earned the second seed in the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship East Regional and hosted an NCAA regional for the fifth consecutive season.