The USM baseball team went into their second weekend of conference play Saturday as they took on the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in a doubleheader at the UMD Athletic Complex. The Huskies dropped the first game 5-4 but prevailed in the nightcap 9-2.
In the first game, the Corsairs rallied to score two unearned runs in the eighth inning to hand USM their eighth loss of the season. USM got the scoring started in the first inning as sophomore infielder Anthony Pisani (Cheshire, Conn.) singled, advanced to second on a balk, moved over to third on a single from senior Collin Henry (Penobscot), and then scored on a fielder’s choice groundout by freshman John Carey (South Portland).
UMD got a run back in the second when junior catcher Matt Ryan homered to tie the score at one. USM responded with one run in the third inning as junior Mike Eaton (Sabattus) hit a home run of his own, but UMD fought right back as they countered with two runs on two hits to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the third when freshman Nick Fuller scored on a Jeff Macchi single, and junior Zak Tallis singled to score junior shortstop Ryan McDermott.
The Huskies weren’t done yet though, as freshman third basemen Nick Grady (Whitefield) blasted his first career home run to tie the game at three in the top of the fourth. The Huskies took a 4-3 lead the next inning as Eaton continued his hot bat by singling, and Henry hit an RBI double to drive in the speedy Eaton.
The score remained 4-3 throughout the sixth and seventh innings until UMD capitalized on an error by Grady at third and Ryan singled to left field to drive in two unearned runs and took the lead 5-4, a lead they would hold on to for the remainder of the game.
Henry was credited with the loss, though he pitched solid as he went the distance while giving up five hits, two walks and striking out seven. Henry’s record dropped to 3-2. Sophomore Pat Lavey picked up the win in relief for UMD while junior Brian Pedrotti recorded the save.
In the nightcap, junior Nick Hahn (Guilford, Conn.) pitched a solid five innings as he gave up eight hits and just one walk while striking out five before handing the ball over to classmate Ben Ives (Portland) who pitched the final four innings giving up just three hits and striking out two while walking none. Hahn recorded his second win of the season and Ives picked up his first save of 2010.
The score was notched at 2-1 after two innings before USM scored three times in the third to take a 5-1 lead. Pisani scored on an error by McDermott at shortstop, Henry singled and then scored on a ground ball error hit by Grady to second base, and Carey scored on a double play ball hit by sophomore Greg Holmes (West Newbury, Mass.).
The Huskies received an insurance run in the fourth when Henry singled in Eaton to increase the lead to five. UMD got one run back in the fifth off a solo home run from Talis, but that is all the Corsairs would get as Ives shut them down and USM scored one run in the eighth and two more in the ninth. Sophomore outfielder David Ricker’s (Winthrop) RBI single, and freshman outfielder Christian Hamilton’s (Westbrook) two-run single highlighted USM’s eighth and ninth innings.
The USM baseball team will be back in action this week as they travel to Colby College on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and will host St. Joseph’s College (Me.) Thursday at 3:30 p.m.