STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (26-17) suffered an 8-1 setback at the hands of MIT (25-12) in what was the regular-season finale for both teams at Larry Mahaney Diamond on Thursday evening.
The Engineers struck first with a run off two hits with two out in the top of the first and the Monks responded in kind, tying the contest with a run off a pair of hits in the bottom half. The SJC bats sputtered thereafter, as the hosts managed to tally just five hits, all singles, and failed to notch multiple base-knocks in the same inning for the remainder of the contest. In the meantime, MIT put up three runs off three hits in the second frame and tacked on a pair off three more hits in the third to earn a 6-1 lead.
Junior reliever Riley Cox (Westford, Mass.) came on in the top of the third and cruised through four innings, fanning five in the process, but the one hit he allowed, a solo homer well beyond the left field wall off the bat of senior designated hitter Hayden Cornwell (Newport Beach, Calif.) in the seventh, extended the visitors' cushion to 7-1.
Senior southpaw Dan Meeken (Marshfield, Mass.) started the top of the eighth and allowed a run off two hits, as junior catcher Kendall Helbert (St. Louis, Mo.) singled, stole second and later scored on a Chad Uyehara (Mililani, Hawaii) infield single, making it an 8-1 game through seven and a half frames.
In the bottom of the eighth, sophomore first baseman Brett Barbati (Melrose, Mass.) attempted to spark the Monks with a one-out single through the left side, but MIT freshman center fielder Garrett Greenwood (Edmond, Okla.) made a nice running catch on a Scott Betts (Peabody, Mass.) line drive to left-center and senior pitcher K.J. Parent (Knoxville, Tenn.) forced sophomore Dan Donovan (Lynn, Mass.) to ground out for the final out of the inning.
In the ninth, Meeken settled in and worked a perfect inning with a pair of K's, but the Monks were unable to land a baserunner in their final turn, as Parent duplicated his counterpart's performance, picking up a three-inning save in the process.
For the Monks, junior left fielder Taylor Reuillard (Biddeford, Maine) was 2-4 and Barbati went 2-3 with an RBI in the losing effort. Senior starter Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.) took the loss after allowing six runs off eight hits and three walks with a pair of punch-outs over 2.2 innings, Cox fanned five and yielded just one hit – the Cornwell homer – over 4.1 frames and Meeken finished the game with three K's and a run allowed off two hits in two innings of work.
For the Engineers, Cornwell was 3-4 with a run, a home run and four RBI, Uyehara went 3-5 with a run, a double and a pair of RBI, Helbert contributed two hits with a pair of runs in four at bats, and freshman right fielder Max Lancaster (Attleboro, Mass.) was 2-4 with a run in the victory. Freshman starter Zach Michaud (Moorestown, N.J.) improved to 2-0 on the year after giving up a run off six hits and a walk with four strikeouts while Parent tossed four innings of one-hit relief with three K's to earn his first save of the season.
MIT, which defeated Saint Joseph's in an elimination game in last year's NCAA New England Regional, captured the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship for the second-consecutive season and will learn their regional placement and seeding when the complete NCAA Tournament bracket is announced late Sunday evening.
Saint Joseph's, an NCAA Tournament qualifier in eight of the last nine seasons, failed to collect an automatic berth into the regional after dropping a pair of games in the GNAC Tournament in late April. Ranked fifth in last week's NCAA New England Region Rankings, the Monks still have a chance – however slim – to earn one of 14 NCAA Tournament at-large berths, which are distributed nationally among the eight regions. Saint Joseph's will also learn of their postseason fate on Sunday evening.
#GOMONKS
Follow Saint Joseph's Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram!
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.
