Springfield, Mass. – March 28, 2013 – The Springfield College baseball team captured their home opener against Westfield State, 9-3, on Thursday afternoon at Berry-Allen Field.

Springfield improved their overall record to 4-7 while the Owls fall to 5-8 on the season.

Kyle DiFranco went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Mike McGowan crossed the plate three times in the win. Starting pitcher Oliver Collette was too strong for the Owls as he picked up his first win on the season, going five innings, giving up five hits and striking out a pair.

Springfield’s relief pitchers, Dan Green (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER) and Jake Porter (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER) shut down the Owls offense for the last 4 innings only giving up 1 earned run.

The Pride jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after the first two innings. Jared Hopkins started the first inning with a walk and later came across on a fielderÂ's choice by McGowan. Matt Milano, who went 2-for-5 on the day with 2 RBI, also drove in a run in the first on a single to right.

In the second frame, Ryan Gower singled, stole second base, and then came across the plate on a sac fly DiFranco. In the top of the 4th, the Owls would cut the Pride lead in half thanks to a RBI double by Dan Rokitowski and a RBI single by Evan Moorhouse.

However, Springfield responded with five runs over the next two innings. The Pride got things started with a RBI double to left center by Billy Paskowski, who would later score a Shane O’Leary sac fly. Milano added another RBI single in the frame as well, while the Pride tallied two more runs in the sixth despite not recording a hit.

Andrew Medeiros registered an RBI single in the seventh to pate Nick Champeau for the game’s final run.

Westfield starter Tommy Nowlan was charged the loss, giving up seven runs on eight eights in five innings of work. Medeiros finished the afternoon going 4-for-5, while Moorhouse tacked on a 2-for-3 effort at the plate.

Springfield will return to league action on Friday when it travels to take on WPI in a game hosted at Clark University at 3:00 pm.