Baseball Advances To ECAC Semifinals

Castleton, VT - Fifth-seeded Becker College smacked three homeruns and scored the final seven runs of the game to earn an 8-2 win over the fourth seed, Castleton, in the opening round of the ECAC New England Championship.

Becker broke through for a run in the second inning as Frank Vaccaro singled and later scored on a single by Geoff Sinnott Jr.

Castleton's Ted Mills tied the game at 1-1 with a solo homerun in the third, and the Spartans took a 2-1 lead on an rbi-ground out from Garrett Bissonnette in the fourth.

A solo homerun by Vaccaro tied it at 2-2 in the sixth, and seventh inning homeruns from Josue Lopez and Jario Valdez gave the Hawks the lead for good. Becker tacked on four runs in the ninth, including three unearned to put the game out of reach.

Valdez led the 18-14-1 Hawks with a 3-for-5 day at the plate, scoring twice and driving in one. Sinnott drove in two runs with a pair of hits and the Hawks received a complete-game effort from Errick Maddern in the win. Maddern scattered seven hits and walked one while striking out four.

Becker will travel to top seeded WPI (26-11) in the semifinals @ 9:00 AM.  The winner will play in the ECAC championship game at 4:00 PM.

Note:  Errick Maddern now holds Becker College single season records for wins (7), innings pitched (75) and strikeouts (73).