MCC on the brink of another NJCAA World Series bid

BROCKTON, MA – (May 9, 2009) MCC scored five times in the top of the first inning and cruised behind Steve Simon to a 9-2 victory over Bunker Hill CC in the second game of the NJCAA Region 21 Division III Tournament Saturday afternoon in Brockton, MA.

MCC will face the winner of the Bunker Hill vs. Massasoit CC elimination game for the Region 21 Championship Sunday morning at 11 am. The Cougars are 2-0 in the tournament and wlll have two tries to win one game for the right to represent New England for the second straight year at the NJCAA Division III World Series in Tyler, Texas running from May 16-22.

The defending Region 21 champions, who came into the tournament as the #1 seed but were the visiting team on Saturday by virtue of a coin toss, led 5-0 before Bunker Hill grabbed a bat.

Herb Coggeshall (Coventry) hit his first homerun of the season with one out in the first and the Cougars (26-17-1) never looked back. Alan Fredrickson (Torrington) followed Coggeshall with a double and scored when cleanup hitter A.J. Lowers (Newington) singled up the middle. Nick Melino (Cromwell) reached on an error and Peter Burgio (Bolton) drove in the pair with a triple. Dave Alexander (Torrington) drove in Burgio to give Simon (7-0) more than enough runs to work with.

“With two strikes I was actually just trying to make contact,” Coggeshall said of his first home run of the year. “I’m not a powerhitter at all but he hung a curve and I just happened to get it out there enough.” The Cougar centerfielder had two hits on Friday and finished the season with a hot bat and a .378 average in 40 games.

“He’s been taking some good swings the last 20 games or so,” MCC Head Coach Chris Strahowski said. “He’s been on fire; that’s why he is back at the top of the order.”

Simon threw 98 pitches and retired the last ten batters he faced. The NJCAA, Division III ERA leader gave up two runs, both earned, on six hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. Simon had four 1-2-3 innings and had eight pitch innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth.

“Steve threw the heck out of the ball,” Strahowski said of Simon. “He made a couple of bad pitches, a bad 0-2 pitch, elevated a couple of balls trying to overthrow a little bit and that is where they got their base hits. When he was down and firm in the zone he did a great job.”

MCC added two runs in the seventh and two more in the ninth. For the second straight game, Lowers and Fredriksson had three hits apiece. MCC had 14 hits and now have 30 in 68 tournament at-bats for a .441 average. The three MCC pithers (Simon, Mike Quagliaroli and John White) have allowed just two runs on eight hits over 14 innings. Bunker Hill scratched out single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Wojick went the distance for BH while his battery-mate, Chris Dowd had a pair of double and scored a run.

At Edgars Playground, the tournament’s alternate site, host Massasoit CC eliminated Holyoke CC with a 9-1 victory. Massasoit and Bunker Hill set to square off Saturday afternoon at 3pm for the right to play MCC on Sunday.

NJCAA Region 21 Division III Tournament

Manchester Community College 9 Bunker Hill CC 2

at Massasoit CC, Brockton, MA

Manchester CC 500 000 202 —– 9 14 4
Bunker Hill CC 000 011 000 —– 2 6 1

M Steve Simon and A.J. Lowers B: Justin Wojik and Chris Dowd WP: Simon (7-0) LP: Wojick;HR: Coggeshall Records: M:26-17-1