STANDISH, ME - Saint Joseph's (22-13, 8-6 GNAC) defeated
Albertus Magnus College (10-24, 6-8 GNAC) in a GNAC preliminary,
single-elimination playoff game on Tuesday, 10-6. SJC starting
pitcher SO Pat Moran (Winterport,
ME) went seven innings, scattered seven hits, allowed two walks and
two earned runs and whiffed seven to earn the victory on the mound.
Senior Luke Enman (Milan, NH)
went 2-4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI's and a triple and sophomore
Ben Grant-Roy (Biddeford, ME) was
2-4 and hit his sixth home run of the season in the must-win
contest.
The Monks scored three runs in the first, all with two outs. After
JR Wade Oliver (Owls Head, ME)
and SR Brian Schools (Gorham, ME)
both grounded out, Enman walked,
Grant-Roy singled and SR Dustin
Spiller (Gorham, ME) walked to load the bases. FY
Ian Lee (Hampden, ME) provided
the big hit with a single to send home Enman and
Grant-Roy and Spiller scored when
the Albertus Magnus right fielder made a throwing error on the play
to put St. Joe's up by three after one inning of play.
The Falcons countered with a two-run home run to left off the bat
of third baseman Erik Suraci (West Haven, CT) to put a dent in the
SJC lead, 3-2.
The Monks hitters responded to score five runs in the bottom of the
second to gain a commanding 8-2 advantage. FY Eric
LaBatte (Rochester, NH) led off with a double down
the leftfield line, SR Andrew
Wood (South Portland, ME) walked and
Oliver laid down a sac bunt to move both runners
into scoring position. Next up was Schools, who
singled to plate LaBatte. Enman
then blasted a triple, his seventh this season, off the 380 sign
near the triangle in center field to knock home two runs and
Grant-Roy followed with his sixth home run of the
season, a two run blast to left field.
The Monks tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to
pad their lead, 10-2. Enman singled home Oliver in
the 4th and FY Todd Keneborus
(Hollis Center, ME) recorded an RBI single in the 5th when he sent
home Spiller, who had reached with a leadoff
triple in the inning.
The Falcons managed to score a run on an error by SJC pitcher Pat
Moran in the 7th to lessen the Royal Blue lead to 10-3. FY
Chris Dion (Lawrence, MA) came on
in relief in the 8th and gave up two runs, both with two outs, as
Albertus Magnus crept back into the game with the score now
10-5.
SO Andrew Keirstead (Westbrook,
ME) came on in the ninth to close out the game, but the Falcons had
other ideas as Suraci led off the inning with a double and scored
on a B.J. Ferraro (New Haven, CT) single with one out to make it a
10-6 game. Keirstead got the groundball he needed from the next AMC
batter, Luis Rosario (New Haven, CT), as he grounded into a 6-4-3
double play to end the game with the Monks on top, 10-6.
For the Monks, Dustin Spiller was
2-3 with 2 runs and Ian Lee was
2-4 with 2 RBI's.
For the Falcons, Kyle Calechman (North Haven, CT), Chris Noske
(South Windsor, CT) and Erik Suraci each had three hits for the
Falcons. Starting pitcher J.R. Bagley (Middletown, CT) allowed 7
earned runs and 6 hits in 1.1 innings to take the loss.
The Monks advance to the double-elimination and will play at #1
seed Suffolk University (23-8, 14-0 GNAC) on Thursday, April 24th
at 5:00 PM. The quarterfinal contest will be played at Adams Field
in Quincy, MA.