Boston, MA – Day one of the 2014 Baseball Championships came to a close with its most exciting game as the Fisher Falcons defeated the Cal State San Macros Cougars, 3-1, to advance in the tournament's winner's bracket.
Victor Mendez (Lawrence, MA) completely flustered the Cal State batters, allowing just six hits and one run over 8 and 2/3 innings. John Tangherlini (Lincoln, RI) closed out the game on three pitches by striking out CSUSM's Jon Putnam (San Marcos, CA) to earn his first save of the season.
The Falcons opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when AII Conference Player of the Year Davidson Peguero (Boston, MA) singled to left field to plate Victor Lebron (Union City, NJ). Peguero later scored on a wild pitch for Fisher's 2nd run of the inning.
The Falcons got an insurance run in the bottom of the 5th when Sander Vargas (Lawrence, MA), who led off the inning with an infield single, scored on a RBI single by Dominic Zaher (Chelmsford, MA).
Cal State made the game interesting in the top of the 9th when Rick Montanez (Vista, CA) reached on a one-out single and Ray Patchen (Lakewood, CA) singled to center. One out later, Dylan Costello (La Quinta, CA) beat out a ground ball to short to load the bases with two outs in the inning. Mendez would walk in the Cougar's only run before his day came to an end. However, Tangherlini managed to close out Fisher's victory.
With the win the Falcons advance to play LSU-Alexandra tomorrow afternoon at 4:00pm. Cal State San Marcos will square off against Georgia Gwinnett and 1:00pm. CSUSM is facing elimination from the tournament with a loss. Saturday's other matchup with by the University of Houston-Victoria versus Lindenwood University-Belleville in an elimination game at 10:00am.