Endicott’s Incredible Season Ends One Game Shy of World Series Appearance

Harwich, Mass. – Endicott's 2013 baseball season saw the Gulls set a program record with 35 wins, capture their first conference tournament title since 2006, and win the first three games of their NCAA New England Regional tournament to reach the championship round.

The remarkable ride came to an end on Sunday afternoon with a 9-0 defeat to Southern Maine in the final game of the regional tournament at Whitehouse Field. The Huskies, who had beaten Endicott (35-14) by a 5-2 score on Saturday to force a one-game championship playoff, win the New England regional and advance to play in the College World Series next week in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Graduate student Colin Sitarz (West Hartford, Conn.) and senior Tyler Hitchcock (Abington, Mass.) were named to the All-Tournament team for Endicott.

Sitarz hit .350 for the tournament with three runs scored, three RBIs and a home run. He was the hero in Thursday's victory over Wheaton College, delivering a game-winning single in the bottom of the tenth.

Hitchcock, the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Pitcher of the Year, appeared in three games for Endicott, making the start in their opening day victory over St. Joseph's Maine and tossing five and a third innings of one-run baseball.

Hitchcock earned his only decision of the tournament with the win in a four shutout inning relief performance in Endicott's 5-2 victory over these Huskies on Friday, Endicott's lone win over Southern Maine in what ended up being five meetings between the clubs this season.

Freshman third baseman Matt Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) was 4-for-4 in Sunday's championship game, but was the only Gull who was able to solve Southern Maine junior Logan Carman (Newfields, N.H.).

Carman, who threw a complete game shutout for the Huskies, scattering seven hits and striking out four batters while issuing just one walk, improved to 12-0 on the year for Southern Maine and broke a school record for victories in a season.

Endicott senior Brendan Pittsley (Plympton, Mass.) took his first loss of the year, falling to 7-1 in a season in which he pitched brilliantly for Endicott, earning two victories in the CCC tournament, including one in relief in the championship win over Western New England.

Sunday, Pittsley gave Endicott six and a third innings of work and allowed three earned runs. He was responsible for ten of Southern Maine's fifteen hits in the game and had two strikeouts.

Southern Maine third baseman Nick Grady (Whitefield, Maine) had a 3-for-5 day with three runs scored and right fielder Troy Thibodeau (Danvers, Mass.) hit a two-run home run during a five-run top of the ninth inning that provided a solid insurance cushion for the Huskies.

The Huskies got a run in the top of the second when Grady scored on a wild pitch, then added two more in the fourth thanks to two bloop singles that snuck inside the right field line, both avoiding the dive of Endicott right fielder Conor Ressel (Rockport, Mass.).

Second baseman Anthony Pisani (Cheshire, Conn.) picked up the first RBI, which was followed by a single to almost exactly the same spot by center fielder Jake Glauser (Goffstown, N.H.).

Both Glauser and Pisani were 2-for-5 in the game, and Glauser added another run batted in in the top of the eighth when he singled through the left side to score catcher Matt Verrier (Norway, Maine) from second base.

Verrier was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two batted in for the Huskies, who added five runs in the ninth, starting with an RBI double by Grady. Verrier followed with a two-run single up the middle before Thibodeau's blast to left center with still nobody out in the inning.

Endicott left seven runners on base in the game, while Southern Maine stranded twelve men in the victory. The Gulls had runners on second and third in the second inning thanks to the speed of Paola and Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.), who each beat out infield singles to lead off the inning, but Carman got a strikeout of Eric Lemke (Southington, Conn.) and induced two ground outs to end the inning.

From there the Gulls had just four base-runners the rest of the game, with their only extra base hit coming on a double to right field by Paola with one out in the ninth.

Ressel led off the game with a single into shallow left center, and first baseman Brett Holmgren singled in the same inning for Endicott's other two hits, but the Gulls also stranded both runners after a double play and a Sitarz pop to first to end the first inning.

Hitchcock came on to toss an inning and two-thirds in relief in Sunday's game, while the Gulls also went to their bullpen for senior Kevin Dupras (Belchertown, Mass.) and junior Connor McLaughlin (Clinton, Mass.), who made his first appearance of the tournament by pitching the ninth inning.

Southern Maine (42-8) earns the program's seventh trip to the Division III College World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin, and their first since the 2001 season.

Carman was a Southern Maine representative on the All-Tournament team, along with shortstop Sam Dexter (Oakland, Maine) and pitcher Andrew Richards (South Portland, Maine), who collected two victories in elimination games on Saturday and was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.