SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The American International College baseball team dropped a 6-5 Northeast-10 decisions against the visiting Assumption Greyhounds on Tuesday afternoon at AIC Park. The Yellow Jackets are now 10-9 overall and 2-5 in the conference, while the Greyhounds improve to 6-16 overall and 2-5 in the NE-10.
In the first inning senior Travis Smith (Coventry, R.I.) doubled to left center field and later crossed home on sophomore Billy Johnson's (Auburn, Mass.) sacrifice fly to center field to give the Greyhounds a 1-0 lead. The Yellow Jackets knotted the contest in the bottom of the frame as junior
Cam MacDonald (Weymouth, Mass.) hit a single through the right side and was plated when junior
Dave Clark (West Springfield, Mass.) grounded out to shortstop.
In the third inning the Greyhounds scored three runs to extend the lead to 4-1. T. Smith singled to left center, senior Shane Keddy (Worcester, Mass.) singled to right field and sophomore Greg O'Donnell (Northbridge, Mass.) doubled to right center field and would all crossed home plate.
AIC scored three runs in the fifth inning to tie the contest at 4-4. Clark drove in two runs on his single to right center field.
Assumption earned a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning when Johnson reached on an error by the first baseman and was later plated by senior Joe Lopes (Warwick, R.I.) single to left field. The Greyhounds added another run in the eighth inning to earn a 5-4 lead over AIC.
Freshman
Tyler Geffert (Hopedale, Mass.) hit an RBI single down the left field line to inch the Yellow Jackets within one, 6-5.
Freshman pitcher
Derek Azzopardi (Redwood City, Calif.) took the loss for AIC as he threw five innings and allowed four runs on nine hits and struck out four, while senior
Tim Bailey (Chicopee, Mass.) threw two innings and allowed two runs on two hits and struck out four. Sophomore Zack LaRosa (West Hartford, Conn.) threw 6.1 innings for the Greyhounds as he allowed four runs on two hits and struck out nine batters.
AIC will host Bloomfield on Thursday afternoon for a 3:30 p.m. non-conference contest at AIC Park.