Standish, ME - After a titanic effort on the part
of the Saint Joseph's College baseball players, coaches and grounds
crew to get beautiful Larry Mahaney Diamond ready to play, the
Monks swept the Rivier College Raiders in two hard fought
contests.
Senior Ben Cutter (Westbrook, ME) was the story in
game one going 6 strong innings allowing only 1 hit and striking
out 10. He saw his teammates plate single runs in the second and
third innings before exploding with 4 runs in the fourth. The rally
started with a one out double by JR CF Dustin
Spiller (Gorham, ME), he then scored on an RBI single off
the bat FY 1B Ben Grant-Roy (Biddeford, ME). After
a Mark Clapp (Blue Hill, ME) single, SR DH
Chris Doughty (Westbrook, ME) doubled sharply down
the left field line scoring Grant-Roy. After a Wade
Oliver (RF, Owl's Head, ME) sacrifice fly SR Captain
Keil Martin (Saco, ME) delivered an RBI single to
score Clapp. That would be more than enough for Cutter to work with
as he wouldn't surrender a hit until the sixth inning. He was
relieved by sophomore Andy Pooler (Southwest
Harbor, ME) who struck out two Raiders in slamming the door
shut.
Game two was a classic pitchers' duel plotting FY LHP Kyle
Dorr (Berwick, ME) against Rivier's Andrew Tiner. The two
teams combined for 10 hits and 1 run in the second game. With the
temperature dropping into the low thirties the score remained
knotted at 0-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. Wade
Oliver singled off of Rivier relief pitcher Isaac Burkett,
then stole second base. With Oliver in scoring position and one out
JR SS Luke Enman (Milan, NH) launched a double
into the right-centerfield gap scoring Oliver easily. In the top of
the sixth Dorr gave way to SR Sam Tupper
(Yarmouth, ME) who pitched out of a bases loaded jam. In the
seventh FY LHP Andrew Keirstead (Westbrook, ME)
preserved the shutout and earned the save surrendering one hit and
striking out one. Dorr went 5 shutout innings striking out 3 to
earn the victory and push his record to 3-0.
With the win, the Monks improve to 14-1 on the season. "Those were
two good wins," said head coach Will Sanborn. "We had a lot of work
to do just to get the field ready, then get focused on playing
baseball. We couldn't have played here today without all of our
guys pitching in. Our Facilities Department really helped out.
Jason Chisholm had this place looking great and things worked out."
The field conditions were not a factor at all in either game and it
is believed that Larry Mahaney Diamond was the only collegiate
baseball facility in use in the entire State of Maine today.
The Monks return to action tomorrow with a 4:00 PM game against
Colby College right here at beautiful Larry Mahaney Diamond on the
campus of Saint Joseph's College.