BEVERLY, MA – Saint Joseph's (7-3) suffered a 4-2 loss at the hands of Endicott College (6-4) in a non-conference baseball contest on Wednesday afternoon. Senior left fielder Sam Butts (Saco, Maine) went 3-4 with two runs and a solo home run in the losing effort.
Saint Joseph's, ranked 11th in the nation in the latest NCBWA/D3baseball.com Weekly Poll, held a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and a 2-1 edge going into the bottom of the fourth, but Endicott plated three runs off four hits in the fourth frame and held on to defeat the Monks by a 4-2 score.
Gull senior starter Tyler Hitchcock (Abington, Mass.) was strong in the victory, allowing just one earned run on five hits with three strikeouts over 7.1 innings to improve to 2-0 on the season. Senior Kevin Dupras (Belchertown, Mass.) closed out the contest and allowed two hits over 1.2 frames of relief to claim his first save of the season.
Monks senior Chad Rafferty (Keene, N.H.) suffered the loss after yielding four runs off nine hits and three walks with four K's in seven innings. The loss is just the second setback of Rafferty's college career and first since falling to Curry College by the same score on March 13th, 2011.
Offensively for the Monks, sophomore catcher Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) was 2-4 while junior first baseman Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.) and sophomore designated hitter Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) both doubled in the loss.
Senior first baseman Brett Holmgren (Middleboro, Mass.) led the Gulls offensively by going 3-4 with a triple and an RBI and senior designated hitter Eric Lemke (Southington, Conn.) went 2-2 with a run, a double, a triple and two RBI on the afternoon.
The outlook was promising in the early going for the Monks, who had not played outdoors in nearly two weeks. Butts led off the contest with a single to right field and later scored when Coyne belted a two-out double to right center, providing the visitors with 1-0 lead.
The Gulls immediately answered with a run in the bottom of the first to knot the game at one-apiece. Junior center fielder Tad Gold (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) singled up the middle, stole second and sprinted home when Holmgren singled up the box.
The deadlock did not last long, as Butts stepped up to the plate with one out in the top of the third and launched a solo blast to deep right field to lift the Royal Blue to a 2-1 advantage.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Colin Sitarz (W. Hartford, Conn.) singled and EJ Martinez (Brooklyn, N.Y.) walked, setting the stage for Lemke, who slapped a triple down the right field line to plate both runners for the Gulls. The next batter, senior Ralph Fidaleo (Fairfield, Conn.), blooped a single to right that blew in from foul territory and landed just fair, allowing Lemke to cross the plate for the Gulls' fourth run of the afternoon.
St. Joe's had two runners on base in the sixth and eighth innings and Pratt led off the top of the ninth with a double to center, but the Monks could not produce the big hit in the losing bid.
With the result, Saint Joseph's falls to 10-4 in the history of the series with Endicott College. Prior to this afternoon, the Monks had defeated the Gulls in four-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2006 season.
Endicott has now defeated three 2012 NCAA DIII New England Regional Tournament participants this spring. The Gulls toppled Bowdoin College (11-3) and Trinity College (6-3) in Auburndale, Florida last week.
Endicott continues its home-stand this Friday afternoon with a 3:30 pm nine-inning game against the Engineers of MIT.
The Monks will be back on the field and on the road tomorrow afternoon, when they travel Husson University for a single nine-inning game starting at 1:00 PM. Endicott hosts MIT on Friday at 3:30 PM.
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.
