Senior center fielder Maxx Sheehan went 2-for-3 with a walk in his final collegiate contest, but the No. 1/3 nationally ranked and East Region champion Franklin Pierce University baseball team could get nothing going offensively in an elimination game on Tuesday. The Ravens saw their season end at the hands of Central Region champion and No. 3/12 Central Missouri, 6-0, on the third day of the NCAA Championship National Finals, hosted by Mount Olive.
With the loss, Franklin Pierce sees its seventh National Finals appearance end in a tie for seventh place and concludes its season at 48-9. The Ravens are 96-13 (.881) over 109 games since the start of the 2015 season.
Central Missouri opened the scoring on Tuesday with a run in the bottom of the second. First baseman Bennett Oliver led off and pulled a double down the right-field line. He moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by left fielder Derek Cornell and scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by third baseman Cole Distler.
The Mules doubled the lead to 2-0 with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Oliver started things again, this time with a one-out single into right-center. He went first-to-third on a single back through the middle by Cornell and scored on Distler’s second sacrifice fly in three innings, this one via a diving catch by Franklin Pierce senior left fielder Kurtis White in the gap in left-center to prevent further scoring.
Another run in the bottom of the seventh inning pushed the lead to 3-0. With one out, junior second baseman Matt Safranek went the other way and dumped a single into right-center and moved to second on a groundout. After a walk was issued to junior catcher Blake Wilfong and junior center fielder Matt Elliott was hit by a pitch, freshman right-hander Tony Sylvester issued a bases-loaded walk to senior right fielder Dylan Farrell to force home Safranek.
The final nail in the 2016 season for the Ravens came in the bottom of the eighth, as Central Missouri added another three runs to create the 6-0 final.
Sophomore right-hander John Amendola started on the mound for Franklin Pierce, but lasted just 3.2 innings, throwing 53 pitches (31 strikes). He allowed two runs on four hits, walked two and struck out two while taking the loss (7-2).
Junior right-hander Ethan Westphal (11-2) needed 21 pitches to get out of the first inning, but went on to fire 105 pitches (70 strikes) over seven shutout innings on the hill for Central Missouri.