NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – The No. 10 Southern Maine Huskies swept the Worcester State Lancers Saturday afternoon at the New England Baseball Complex (NEBC) as the Huskies start their season 2-0 and Worcester State drops to 5-3.
GAME ONE: Worcester State 4, Southern Maine 7
After two scoreless innings, Southern Maine reached the scoreboard in the top of the 3rd inning as Nick DiBiase (Portland, Me.) reached base on a Lancer error. In return, Nick Bowie (South Paris, Me.) touched the plate as he stole second base, and eventually rounded third and scored on the error. The Huskies added to their lead in the top of the 4th, scoring on yet, another Worcester State error.
Southern Maine's key inning was the top of the 5th when three runs reached the plate on two hits and one error. Hits from Paul McDonough (Wells, Me.), Jake Glauser (Goffstown, NH), and Brandon Martins (Manorville, NY) allotted for two earned runs to cross the plate.
Worcester State finally reached the board in the bottom of the 5th when Josh Creamer (Worcester, Mass.) doubled and scored Brian Bonacquisti (Pittsfield, Mass.) home, putting the score at 5-1 in the Huskies advantage. The Huskies added two runs in the top of the 6th to advance the score to 7-1.
The Lancers came back with a powerful inning in the bottom of the 7th when they scored three runs on four hits and one Husky error. George Bielizna (Danbury, Conn.) started out the inning with a solo blast to left center. With the momentum in place, Mike Ferrara (Easton, Mass.) singled to left, only for the next two batters to put two outs up on the board. With one to go, pinch hitter, Dan McGuill (E. Longmeadow, Mass.) singled down the right field line to advance John Boyd (Worcester, Mass.) to third. Next up, Josh Creamer (Worcester, Mass.) doubled to centerfield to drive in two more runs, leading to a score of 7-4 going into the 8th inning.
The 8th and 9th innings were clean-cut, resulting in no runs scored to give the Huskies their first win of the season.
Southern Maine's Shyler Scates (Jefferson, Me.) recorded the win, as he pitched 6.2 innings and struck out four batters. Worcester's Tyler Barrie (Oxford, Mass.) registered the loss for the Lancers as he pitched five innings.
GAME TWO: Worcester State 2, Southern Maine 14
The first half of the game consisted of a pitching duel between Dalton Rice (Waterford, Me.) of Southern Maine and Kyle Sullivan (Hudson, Mass.) of Worcester State as neither allowed a run until the bottom of the 5th inning.
Southern Maine started their scoring rally in the bottom of the 5th when Paul McDonough (Wells, Me.) recorded the first RBI of the game to score Matt Bender (Wapole, Mass.) at the plate. Another hit from Jake Glauser (Goffstown, NH) assisted in scoring Sam Dexter (Oakland, Me.) at the plate to put the Huskies up 2-0.
From there on out, Southern Maine had three consistent innings where they scored four runs apiece, driving the score to a 14-2 ballgame as Worcester State rounded up one run in the 8th and one run in the 9th.
Nine of 15 Southern Maine batters averaged .500 or above in the second game. S. Dexter went 3-for-5 with four runs and three RBI. McDonough went 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Glauser batter the same with 3 RBI. Off the bench, Nick Bowie (South Paris, Me.) went 1-for-1 with a shot over the left-centerfield wall for his first home run of the season.
Rice earned the win for the Huskies, while Sullivan absorbed the loss even though he pitched a phenomenal five innings, only allowing one earned run.
The Lancers return to action on Tuesday (Mar. 15) where they will host Rivier at the NEBC. Southern Maine takes a six-day break from play, as they will face up against Washington (Mo.) on Friday (Mar. 19).