ENDICOTT POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

EASTLAKE, Ohio — A seventh inning two-run shot from Robbie Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.) led the No. 3/4 Endicott baseball team past No. 8/9 Kean on Sunday evening at Classic Park, sending them through to the College World Series (CWS) national semifinals.

WP (5-1): Jake Harmony (Fairfield, Conn.) — 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
LP (4-2): Jason Basilicata (Bayville, N.J.) — 4 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh, the Gulls turned to Robbie Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.) to tally the big hit they had been searching for, and he answered the call. With John Mulready (Peabody, Mass.) on second, Wladkowski turned on a hanging slider and bombed it to left field, clearing the bleachers for a tape-measure two-run homer for a 5-4 Gulls lead.

Earlier in the game, the Cougars had jumped out to a 3-0 lead with three first-inning runs off of All-American Evan Scully (Maynard, Mass.) (one earned), who returned to action just eight days after taking a line drive off of his pitching elbow.

The Gulls immediately grabbed two runs back in the bottom of the first thanks to sac flies from Joey Frammartino (North Reading, Mass.) and Mulready. Mulready's sac fly came with the bases loaded, and looked to be a grand slam before Kean's center fielder reached over the left center field wall and brought it back-- potentially saving three Gulls' runs from crossing and keeping it a 3-2 ball game.

After the rocky first inning, Scully settled in and only allowed one more earned run over the next five innings. His final line was 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, providing some lockdown innings for a Gulls team stretched thin on pitching.

In the bottom of the third, the Gulls made it a one-run contest, as Mulready drilled an RBI double into right center, scoring Kyle Grabowski (Westfield, Mass.) to make it a 4-3 game.

The score held there until the bottom of the seventh, when Wladkowski delivered his historic shot. 

Now up 5-4, Jake Harmony (Fairfield, Conn.) was faced with the task of closing out the win. As he did on Friday, he delivered another lights-out relief appearance against the Cougars. He pitched a clean seventh and eighth innings, and brought the Gulls into the ninth with the one-run lead.

In the ninth, the Cougars' leadoff man reached on a single, and then advanced to second with nobody out via a wild pitch. With the tying run 180 feet away, the Cougars elected to square around in an attempt to sacrifice the tying run over to third. However, they were unsuccessful in doing so, and with the runner taking a large secondary lead, Mulready whipped down to second base and hung the runner out to dry, securing the first out of the inning in style.

Harmony then set down the next two men on consecutive groundouts to finish off the exciting come-from-behind win for Endicott.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Wladkowski's homer moved him past Nicolas Notarangelo '24 (Taunton, Mass.) and into sole possession of first place all-time on Endicott's career home run leaderboard (28).
• Harmony has recorded the win in both of the Gulls' CWS wins. During the tournament, he has tossed seven innings without surrendering a run.
• The Gulls' pitching staff allowed just five ER in 18 IP to Kean (2.50 ERA). This season, Kean averaged 7.7 runs per game. 
• With his two RBI day today, Mulready has 151 for his career and sits just six back of Notarangelo's career-long record of 157. Meanwhile, Wladkowski sits seven back with 150.
• Grabowski leads the Gulls with a .455 AVG in CWS play.
• First national semifinal appearance in program history.

WHAT'S NEXT

No. 3/4 Endicott (45-5) takes on Messiah in the national semifinals tomorrow at 10 AM. They need to win to force an if-necessary semifinal game, which would be played at 4:45 PM.

No. 8/9 Kean (41-11) sees its 2025 campaign come to a close.