Northboro, MA- The Falcons Baseball team kicked off their spring campaign Saturday afternoon at the New England Baseball Complex and did so with a 9-4 victory over the Anna Maria College Amcats. The win is the 13th in a row as the Falcons remain undefeated currently holding a 13-0 overall record, good enough for the best start in school history. Senior Zach Leblanc (Salem, MA) earned his fifth win of the year, pitching five strong innings scattering five hits allowing two earned runs while striking out eight. Jose Galan (Alta, PR) pitched for the first time this season earning a save to start out his year, allowing just four hits in four innings to go along with 8K's.
The Falcons offense got on the board first, jumping out to a 7-0 lead after two full innings. John Batista (Lawrence, MA) led off the second with a single to right and moved up to second on the next pitch as the Amcats starter threw a wild pitch. Joshua Rogers (Highland Ranch, CO) took Colin Pipkin's next pitch deep to left field for his third double of the season moving Batista over to third base. Pipkin's early struggles continued as he then hit Sami Bibovic (Brookyln, NY) to load the bases with no outs. Braxten Ramirez (Amarillo, TX) plated Batista on a hard grounder to third, and a Amcats miscue allowed Rogers to score on the play as well, giving the Falcons a 2-0 lead and runners on the corners. Ramirez took off on the next pitch and an error by the Amcats catcher allowed Bibovic to score. Pipkin was able to get the next two batters, but another Amcats error allowed Lundholm to reach safely, scoring Ramirez. Jonathan Rosado (Bayamon, PR) then tagged his first double of the season to right center scoring Lundholm putting the Falcons up 5-0. Ismael Perez (Brooklyn, NY) followed suit with his own double down the right field line and his 9th RBI of the season as Rosado made it 6-0. Batista, up for the second time in the inning, plated Perez as he knocked a pitch into right to give the Falcons a 7-0 cushion. Pipkin was able to stop the bleeding when he got Rogers to ground out to short to end the inning.
The Amcats got to Leblanc in the bottom of the third after Amcats Adam Twitchell was struck by a pitch and then moved up to second on the next pitch on a Leblanc wild pitch. An RBI single with two outs from Noah Holland plated Twitchell as the Amcats got on the board 7-1. After a clean inning for the Amcats defense in the fourth, they tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from Greg Gehring to make it 7-2 after four complete.
Fisher's bats got going again in the 6th as Lundholm led off the inning with a single to left. Another RBI double from Rosado scored Lundholm to give the Falcons the 8-2 lead. Bibovic rapped a single to left scoring Rosado and the Falcons would head to the bottom of the sixth leading 9-2. AMC answered in the bottom of the inning as Gehring earned another RBI as he singled to right allowing Kosta Drosidis to score who reached on a walk to lead off the inning. Galan got out of the jam as he struck out Jackson Dobek to end the threat and kept the Falcons up 9-3. The Amcats tacked on another run in the bottom of the 8th on a Twitchell double but that's all they would get and the Falcons would hold on for the 9-4 victory.
Four Falcons collected two hits in the win with leadoff batter Jorge Sanchez (Caguas, PR) leading the way, along with Rosado, Bibovic and Batista. The Falcons had 11 hits overall and also had four stolen bases in the win. The Falcons defense continues to play strong as they played errorless baseball in the victory and have only five errors in 13 games this season.
Fisher will head to the University of Rio Grande in Ohio next weekend for a pair of doubleheaders against the 8-5 Red Storm. The action will kick off on Saturday with the first game slated for 1pm with the second game to follow.