STANDISH, ME - #21 Saint Joseph's College (13-5, 3-1 GNAC) defeated Curry College (4-6-2, 2-1 CCC), 11-3, in a non-conference baseball contest at Larry Mahaney Diamond on Thursday afternoon.
For the third-consecutive game Saint Joseph's put double digits up on the board in both runs and hits as the Monks, ranked 21st in the nation in the latest D3baseball.com Poll, featured four repeat hitters and rapped four doubles with just one strikeout in the eight-run triumph.
The bats may take the headline, but the byline goes to sophomore starting pitcher Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.), who fanned a career-high nine batters while allowing two runs off five hits and a walk over seven innings to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Senior second baseman Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine) led the offensive charge from the #8 hole, going 3-5 with two runs, a double and a pair of RBI and freshman center fielder Tim Beaudette (Uxbridge, Mass.) was 3-5 with a double and an RBI in the convincing victory. Sophomore left fielder Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) went 2-4 with a run, a two-bagger and two RBI and freshman shortstop Zack Graham (Marlborough, Mass.) added two hits, two runs and a pair of RBI in five at bats for the hosts.
Sophomore Dan Meeken (Marshfield, Mass.) allowed a hit and fanned one batter in a scoreless eighth inning and freshman hurler Corey McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) allowed an unearned run in an otherwise clean ninth frame.
Senior right fielder Sam Barron (Hadley, Mass.) was the Colonels' lone repeat hitter and went 2-3 with two runs and a solo home run. Sophomore first baseman Tanner Givens (Hamden, Conn.) belted a solo blast for the visitors in a losing effort.
Senior starting pitcher Corey Pierro (Essex, Mass.) suffered the loss for the Colonels after allowing five runs (two earned) off six hits and three walks in three innings. Junior Matt O'Neill (Milton, Mass.) gave up two runs off two hits and a walk with one strikeout in three frames of relief while freshman John Arens (Milton, Mass.) and freshman Angel Rosario (Southbridge, Mass.) combined to surrender four runs off six hits and a walk in the closing two innings.
The final score would not be indicative, but the Monks were unable to produce the big hit early, as the Royal Blue stranded five runners in the first two innings. Pierro was able to escape a bases-loaded jam by inducing an Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.) fly-out in the bottom of the first and forced Graham to ground out with runners on second and third in the second frame.
With Valenti dealing, the Monks put a crooked number on the board in the bottom of the third when the hosts plated five runs off three hits and a Curry error. Lops and Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.) drew walks to lead off the inning and Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) loaded the bases with a single through the left side. Third baseman Alex Markakis (Lynnfield, Mass.) followed and hit what looked to be an inning-ending double-play ball, but Curry shortstop Derek Pizarro (Cambridge, Mass.) could not handle the grounder, a play that allowed both Lops and Pratt to score. Chase then drove Coyne across the plate with a well-struck double down the left field line and Markakis sprinted home on a Willie Brown (Fayette, Maine) ground-out to third base. Finally, Beaudette capped the scoring with an RBI single up the middle, driving in Chase to make it a 5-0 contest.
Curry responded in the fourth when Givens drove a Valenti offering over the left-center wall to cut the Colonels' deficit to 5-1.
After a 1-2-3 fifth, the Monks went back to work in the sixth when Graham and Lops produced run-scoring hits to lift Saint Joseph's to a 7-1 cushion. The Colonels answered with a run in the seventh, as Barron hit a frozen rope just above the fence and slightly below the scoreboard in left.
Saint Joseph's went on to put the game away by scoring three runs off four hits in the bottom of the seventh. Markakis greeted Arens, who had just entered the contest, with a homer to nearly the same spot as the tater hit by Givens three innings earlier and Graham and Lops both recorded RBI singles to lift the Monks to a 10-2 advantage.
In the bottom of the eighth, Chase plated Andrew Cessario (Limerick, Maine) - who led off the frame and reached with a well-struck single to left - with an infield hit. Curry capped the game scoring with a single run in the ninth as Barron reached on an error and later scored on an O'Neill sacrifice fly.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 11-2 in the history of the series with Curry College. Prior to today, the previous five contests between the Monks and Colonels had been decided by three or fewer runs, including a 2-1 SJC triumph on March 15th in Auburndale, Florida last spring.
Saint Joseph's continues play with a GNAC doubleheader at Anna Maria College beginning at 12:00 PM on Saturday. Curry hosts Johnson & Wales University tomorrow in a 3:30 PM 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.
