LAKE WALES, FL - Saint Joseph's College (5-0) edged Wheaton College (3-2), 2-1, in a battle between two of the top NCAA DIII New England programs on Monday afternoon at Warner University. Sophomore Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.) tossed five innings of one-run, four-hit ball to collect the winning decision.
Saint Joseph's, ranked 12th in the most recent D3baseball.com national poll, was able to outlast Wheaton, the top-ranked team in the country and 2012 NCAA DIII World Series runner-up, with the help of excellent pitching and sound offensive execution.
The game was scoreless and the Monks were held without a hit going into the bottom of the fourth. Junior third baseman Alex Markakis (Lynnfield, Mass.) ended the hitless drought when he led off the end of the fourth frame with a double down the left field line, but appeared to be doubled off second when the following batter – sophomore catcher Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) – hit a sinking liner to first that was initially called a catch. St. Joe's Head Coach Will Sanborn '86 asked for help from the home plate umpire and the call was reversed, giving the Monks runners on first and second with nobody out.
Both runners moved up a base when sophomore designated hitter Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) dropped down a sacrifice bunt and senior first baseman Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.) followed with a sac fly to center, plating Markakis and lifting the Royal Blue to a 1-0 lead.
The Lyons challenged in the top of the fifth when freshman Jimmy Smith (Worcester, Mass.) walked, senior Eric Jensen (Gorham, N.H.) reached on an error and senior Sean Ryan (Norton, Mass.) walked to load the bases with two out, but Valenti settled in and fanned sophomore first baseman Apolinar De la Cruz (Providence, R.I.) to end the threat.
Saint Joseph's tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth to secure a 2-0 cushion. Senior left fielder Sam Butts (Saco, Maine) led off with a walk and moved up to second on a David Nieves (York, Maine) sac bunt. Up next was senior second baseman Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine), who knocked in his classmate with a double to left-center.
As it played out, the second SJC run proved vital as Wheaton pushed a run across in the top of the sixth to cut the Monks' advantage back down to one. Sophomore Tyler Contillo (Montville, Conn.) and senior catcher Dan Gusovsky (Andover, Mass.) led off the frame with base hits and Coach Sanborn removed Valenti in favor of sophomore lefthander Dan Meeken (Marshfield, Mass.) as a result. Both baserunners moved up a bag on a Matt Lavanchy (Walpole, Mass.) sac bunt and Contillo tagged up and scored when Pratt made an over the shoulder catch on a foul fly ball hit by Justin Peluso (North Andover, Mass.).
Freshman reliever Corey McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) replaced Meeken in the top of the eighth and, after a harmless eighth, ran into trouble in the ninth when Wheaton managed to load the bases on a hit batsman an SJC infield error and a walk. The righthander was able to work his way out of the jam with a harmless fly to right to close out the game and record his second two-inning save in as many days.
Lops, who went 2-3 on the day, was the Monks' lone repeat hitter while Coyne and Nieves both contributed a pair of sac bunts in the victory. Meeken allowed one hit and fanned one in two innings of relief and McNamara closed the door while allowing a hit and a free pass over two frames.
Ryan was 2-4 with a double and finished as the Lyons' only batter to record more than one hit in the loss. Junior starting pitcher Nik Filloramo (Rochester, Mass.) allowed two runs off three hits and three walks with five strikeouts to take the loss and freshman Eric Dumas (Brookline, Mass.) finished the game with two innings of two-hit relief. Offensively, Wheaton stranded 14 runners on base in the one-run setback.
Wheaton's run in the top of the sixth ended the Monks' scoreless inning streak at 30.2 innings. The SJC pitching staff has allowed only two runs in 35 innings and carries a 0.51 team ERA into the team's sixth game of the trip.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 3-6 in the history of the series with Wheaton College. The last time the Monks defeated a #1 ranked team occurred during the 2009 campaign when the Royal Blue bested Southern Maine by an 8-7 margin on April 29th.
Saint Joseph's resumes play on Wednesday when the Monks face Keene State College in a single nine-inning game slated to begin at 1:00 PM. Wheaton takes on the Owls tomorrow morning in a 10:00 AM start.
Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 350-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
