Friars Win Three Straight at Blue-Gray Classic

Baseball Drills Michigan State, 14-1.

March 1, 1998

MONGOMERY, Ala. - The Providence College Friars swept through the Blue-Gray Classic in Montgomery, Alabama on Sunday afternoon by pounding out 18 hits on the way to a 14-1 win over the Michigan State Spartans.

The win gave PC a 3-0 record in the tournament and four wins in a row as they head into the Florida portion of the trip with a 5-1 record.

Junior righthander Josh Burnham pitched seven strong innings, giving up six hits and one run on the way to making his record, 2-1. Todd Murray pitched one hit relief over the final two innings for the Friars. Burnham got all the offensive support he would need in the fourth inning as PC exploded for five runs to break open a 2-1 game.

After Michigan State scored an unearned run in the third, PC came right back. Angelo Ciminiello drove in Jason Hairston with a sacrifice fly and Scott Friedholm's solo homer put the Friars ahead to stay at 2-1.

Keith Reed led off with a home run, his fourth in six games and he was followed by a rbi singles by Jason Hairston and Bryan Tamul and Friedholm closed out the inning with a two-run single to make it, 7-1, Providence.

The Friars tacked on two more in the sixth inning, one in the seventh and four more in the eighth. Senior designated hitter Rudy Mauritz hammered a three-run homer and Paul Costello added a solo shot to close out the PC scoring.

Costello and Friedholm each had three hits in the game while Bryan Tamul, Friedholm, and Mauritz each drove in three runs in the game.

Providence outscored its opponents in the Blue-Gray Classic by a combined 38-19. After a day off for travel on Monday, the Friars start the Florida portion of the spring trip with a single game at Lynn University on Tuesday afternoon.

Michigan State (1-5)   0 0 1  0 0 0  0 0 0  -   1  7  1
Providence  (5-1)      0 0 2  5 0 2  1 4 X  -  14 18  1

MSU - Gary Zsigo, Scott Brandell (4), Scott Kocol (7), Casey Reader (8) and Carlos Fernandez, Joe Kalczynski (5).
PC - Josh Burnham, Todd Murray (8) and Scott Friedholm, Dan Conway (9).
Winner - PC: Burnham (2-0); Loser: MSU: Zsigo (1-1)
Home Runs - PC: Scott Friedholm (1), Keith Reed (4), Rudy Mauritz (1), Paul Costello (2)