STANDISH, Maine – Top-seeded Saint Joseph's College (23-12, 12-2 GNAC) blanked #4 Lasell College (14-16, 9-5 GNAC), 7-0, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Baseball Tournament Second Round contest at Larry Mahaney Diamond on Thursday afternoon. Senior catcher Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) went 4-5 with two runs, a double, two home runs and four RBI in the victory.
The Monks clicked on all cylinders with timely hitting, excellent pitching and mistake-free defense in the team's tournament opener. Senior pitcher Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.) tossed seven scoreless, two-hit innings with four walks and eight strikeouts to pick up his third win of the season and the Saint Joseph's lineup totaled 16 hits, including five of the extra-base variety, in the shutout victory.
With the win, Saint Joseph's jumps into the winners' bracket and will face #3 Suffolk University at 1:30 PM on Saturday at Holman Stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire. Lasell takes on #2 Johnson & Wales University in a losers' bracket contest at 10:00 AM in Nashua on Saturday. Suffolk defeated Johnson & Wales, 7-5, in the other second round contest earlier this evening.
After stranding two runners in both the first and second innings, the Monks got on the board in the third when junior left fielder Taylor Reuillard (Biddeford, Maine) tripled to deep center and trotted home when Coyne launched his first jack of the day, a deep shot over the left-center wall to make it a 2-0 game through three full frames.
The 2-0 lead remained until the bottom of the sixth, when Saint Joseph's knocked in three runs off four hits and a Lasell error to secure a 5-0 advantage. With one out, sophomore second baseman Taylor Black (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.) singled up the middle and scored two batters later when Reuillard reached on an error. Senior third baseman Lincoln Sanborn (Standish, Maine) singled and raced home on a Coyne two-bagger down the left field line and sophomore first baseman Brett Barbati (Melrose, Mass.) plated Reuillard with a flare to right field.
The Monks proceeded to tack on single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, as sophomore center fielder Dennis Meehan (Gardiner, Maine) worked a one-out walk and scored on a base hit in the former and Coyne led off with a solo homer to left in the latter to account for the 7-0 final.
For the Monks, Sanborn was 3-4 with a run and an RBI, Barbati went 3-5 with a double and an RBI and sophomore Dan Donovan (Lynn, Mass.) added a pair of hits in four at bats in the convincing victory. In relief, junior Riley Cox (Westford, Mass.) fanned three batters with a walk in an impressive inning of work and junior Corey McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) walked one with a trio of harmless fly-outs in another effective frame to close out the contest.
Coyne is the first St. Joe's player to belt a pair of home runs in the same game since former teammate Alex Lorenc '14 launched two taters in a GNAC Tournament win over Suffolk on April 25th, 2013.
Lasell junior right fielder Skylar Beckerman (Pensacola, Fla.) and freshman shortstop Jesse Tejero (West Haven, Conn.) both went 1-3 and accounted for the Lasers' only two hits in the losing effort. Freshman starting pitcher Josh Bahnick (Clinton, Mass.) took the loss after allowing two runs off eight hits in 2.1 innings while senior Ryan Bowen (Hudson, Mass.) yielded three runs (two earned) off six hits with a punch-out in 3.2 frames of relief. Junior Gary Trottier (Rehoboth, Mass.) and senior Vinny Romano (Yonkers, N.Y.) combined to give up two runs off two hits and a pair walks in two innings of mop-up duty.
Overall, Saint Joseph's stranded 12 runners while just two Lasell baserunners advanced past second base all afternoon.
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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 474-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.
