Warriors Playing Best Baseball Down The Stretch

BROCKTON, Mass. ---- The Massasoit Community College baseball team has been firing on all cylinders down the final stretch of the 2014 regular season. The Warriors are winners of seven-straight to secure the No. 1 seed in the Region XXI Tournament hosted in Brockton from May 9-11.

Massasoit currently sits at 19-9 overall and 13-1 against divisional opponents in Region XXI. In addition, the Warriors are 15-4 since returning from their Florida Spring Break trip.

On April 19, the Warriors dropped the first game of a doubleheader to Quinsigamond at home, 9-5, and found themselves sitting at 12-9 overall. Since that loss the Green and White have rallied off seven-straight victories in dominant fashion thanks to outstanding pitching and hitting.

PITCHING
Head coach Tom Frizzell has received stellar efforts from his pitching staff during the recent win streak. Six of the seven starters have fired complete games and the team owns a 1.88 ERA over the 48 innings yielding only 10 earned runs.

The staff has only allowed 30 hits, with 44 strikeouts to just 12 walks.

Shane Holmes (East Bridgewater) has really flourished on the bump. The southpaw has made two starts over the course of the win streak, picking up a pair of wins against Holyoke CC and Northern Essex CC. In 16 innings, he has allowed only four earned runs off 11 hits along with an impressive 15 strikeouts to only two walks.

Tom Protentis (Lakeville), Corey Walker (North Attleboro), Brent Eaton (Plymouth), David Tarr (Easton) and Luke Nagle (Pembroke) all have earned wins during the impressive 7-0 run.

HITTING
The bats of heated up for the Warriors over the last seven games, even though the weather has struggled to change. Massasoit owns a team batting average of .394 (85-216) and outscoring the opponents 72 to 12 over that span.

Massasoit has scored 10-or-more runs in four of the seven games and reached 10-plus hits five times.

Individually, five players are hitting north of .450 over the recent successfully streak – Patrick Murray (Weymouth), Joe Walsh (Taunton), David Murphy (Plymouth), Travis Ritchie (Taunton) and Trevor Packard (Brockton).

Murray and Walsh are both an identically 12-for-21, owning batting averages of .571. Murray has scored eight runs and knocked in eight, while Walsh has 10 RBI and seven runs scored.

Next is leadoff man Ritchie, who is hitting .458 (11-for-24) with 11 runs scored. Ritchie has at least one hit in all seven games, and is currently on a 14-game hit streak overall.

Murphy, the shortstop, is hitting a robust .450 (9-for-20) with 10 runs scored and 11 RBI, while Packard has caught three of seven games, going 6-for-10 (.600) with five runs scored and five RBI.

Also contributing has been Luke Nagle (Pembroke) hitting at .381 over his last seven games, and Matt Levasseur (Milton) who has knocked in 11 during the recent success.

SCHEDULE
Massasoit closes out the season with a doubleheader this Saturday vs. Navy Prep in Brockton at Noon. The Warriors then host Bunker Hill on Monday, May 5, before the Region XXI Tournament gets underway from May 9-11 at Colombo Field.