The USM baseball team took the field against long-time rival St. Joseph’s of Standish in a non-conference game at the USM Baseball Stadium in Gorham on Thursday afternoon. Two runs in the eighth inning and a suicide squeeze play in the ninth propelled the Monks to a 7-6 victory over the Huskies.
St. Joe’s junior Ian Lee hit an RBI double to left-center and senior Travis Adams hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth to put the Monks up 6-5 before freshman Nate Martin perfectly executed a suicide squeeze bunt to score Chris Campbell from third for their seventh run.
USM wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as they put up two runs in the bottom of the first. Sophomore first baseman Greg Holmes (West Newbury, Mass.) led off with a double to left field and was followed by red hot sophomore Anthony Pisani (Cheshire, Conn.) who hit a line-drive triple to center to bring in Holmes. Junior outfielder Mike Eaton (Sabattus) then hit an RBI groundout to second to bring in Pisani and give USM the 2-0 lead.
USM junior pitcher Joe Curran (Arlington, Mass.) cruised through the fifth inning as he gave up only three hits and one unearned run, while the offense backed him up by scoring three more runs in the fourth when sophomore catcher Zach Fernandes (Eliot) hit his first home run of the season to left, a three run shot, which drove in freshmen Tucker White (Deerfield, N.H.) and Nick Grady (Whitefield) who each singled earlier in the inning.
St. Joe’s crept back in the top of the sixth as they scored three runs on four hits to cut the USM lead to one. Back to back singles to start the inning by senior Mike Burdin and junior Todd Keneborus caused USM to make a pitching change, with tall sophomore right hander Dustin Stanton (Cornish) replacing Curran. Stanton got senior power hitter Ben Grant-Roy to fly out to right but Lee took advantage of a pitch the next at-bat taking it over the left field fence for a three-run shot and his second long ball of the season.
USM remained scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings and the stage was set for Lee and Adams’ singles and Martin’s heroics in the ninth. The Huskies made a good effort at a comeback in the bottom of the ninth as St. Joe’s pitcher Pat Moran walked two and gave up a RBI single to Eaton that scored sophomore outfielder Roberto Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.) from second, but then got senior designated hitter Collin Henry (Penobscot) to fly out to the warning track in center for the final out.
“I think we played a real good game overall we just had a couple tough breaks,” Fernandes said. “St. Joe’s is a good team and they just chipped away. We have a young team and as we go along I think we’ll learn to keep adding to a lead rather than just sitting on it earlier in the game. We have a couple tough games next week and we just really need to concentrate on getting the lead early and our pitching needs to stay tough late in the game.”
Moran came in the for freshman reliever Adam Stanclift in the sixth and displayed tremendous poise and command as he shut down the Huskies for the remainder of the game. Moran, who is 5-1 on the season, earned the win for the Monks as he pitched the remaining 3.2 innings of the game while giving up one run on just two hits and two walks, and striking out six.
Curran pitched five solid innings giving up five hits and two earned runs. Stanton was staked with the loss, making his season record 0-1.
USM has a busy week of baseball ahead of them as they will host Husson University on Tuesday at 4 p.m., travel to Standish to take on St. Joe’s on Wednesday at 4 p.m., will take on Thomas College at home on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and Plymouth State in an LEC doubleheader on Saturday at 4 p.m., and will travel to UMass Boston on Sunday.