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Golden Bears Rally for a 7-6 Walk-Off Victory Over Salve Regina to Open CCC Championship

Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Junior Matt Anziano connected for a single to left-center field with the bases loaded to give No. 3-seed Western New England a dramatic, 7-6 come-from-behind victory in walk-off fashion over fourth-seeded Salve Regina in Game 3 of the 2014 Commonwealth Coast Conference Baseball Championship at Pat Ricci Field at Trelease Park on Friday.

As a result, coupled with No. 5 Gordon's 15-4 upset at No. 2 Roger Williams today, the Golden Bears (17-18-1 overall) will host the Fighting Scots (19-15) for Game 6 at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Seahawks fall to 25-13 after the one-run loss and will face No. 1 Endicott (a 7-5 winner versus No. 6 Wentworth) in Game 5.

Junior Steve Buckley led WNE offensively by going 2-for-3 at the plate, including a double and triple, with three runs batted in. Sophomore Doug Milne added two hits.

Senior Mike Lospinuso picked up the win (5-4) after pitching one inning in relief. Brendan Nugent gave WNE a solid start by scattering seven hits in 7.2 innings of work and striking out six to increase his CCC-leading season total to 71--24 more than the next hurler.

Ryan Kelly had three of the Seahawks' 10 hits and he drove in two runs. Ryan Sweenor and Anthony Conte each chipped in two hits and a RBI.

The see-saw affair culminated with Salve taking a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth before WNE's spirited comeback had two runs of its own in the bottom half.

Cory Blankmeyer doubled home Sweenor--who led off with a single down the left line--from second base to tie it 5-5, and Kelly singled to left field to score pinch-runner Salvatore Cumella with the go-ahead run. Western New England got out of further damage by turning a 6-3 double play.

The Golden Bears, however, didn't flinch and loaded the bases with one out on a hit by pitch, single from Milne and walk by senior co-captain Jeff Schult. Freshman Daniel Morin batted in Buckley from third base when the shortstop couldn't field the grounder cleanly, tying the score at 6. One batter later, Anziano hit a single into the left field gap to plate Milne with the winning run.

Trailing 3-2 in the seventh, WNE took its second lead of the afternoon with three runs on five hits for a 5-3 advantage. Sophomore T.J. Wyrebek had a RBI-double down the third base line and Buckley had a key two-run double to center field after coming back from being down 0-balls, 2-strikes in the count.

Salve went up for the first time in the seventh when they pushed across two runs on a Sweenor RBI-triple to the right-center gap and then he scored on a Conte's sacrifice fly to left field.

Western New England got on the scoreboard first when senior co-captain Steve Ambrosino scored on a wild pitch in the first inning before Kelly tied it on a single up the middle in the third. But Buckley gave the Golden Bears the lead again in their bottom half, 2-1, with a run-scoring triple to right-center to bring home Ambrosino, who had walked.
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