Hartford, Conn. – The Trinity College Bantams opened the 2019 season on a positive note at home with a 5-4 win over the No. 8-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies this afternoon at Murren Family Field in DiBenedetto Stadium.  The game was part of Trinity's Bantam Baseball Bonanza to start the spring, which also featured an 8-7 win in 10 innings by MIT against Nichols and a 3-2 victory for the Huskies in their season opener against MIT.  Yesterday's and tomorrow's Bonanza games were canceled, although tomorrow's schedule contest between Trinity and MIT will now be played on Monday at 4 p.m. in Hartford.

Trinity took a 1-0 lead when sophomore SS Vincent Capone (Ambler, Pa.) led off with a walk and scored on a sacrifice fly by junior Mack Lauder (Chappaqua, N.Y.).  The Bantams broke out with four unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning.  Two Husky errors and a hit batsman loaded the bases with one out, and Trinity took advantage with an RBI single by Lauder and a two-run double by senior tri-captain 1B Johnny Stamatis (Ridgefield, Conn.).  Bantam rookie 3B Mike Guanci (Wakefield, Mass.) added a two-run RBI single later in the inning.

Senior LHP Henry Curran (South Portland, Maine) relieved junior starter Gage Feeney (Cutler, Maine) to get the final out in the third and combined with two others out of the Southern Maine bullpen to keep Trinity off the board the rest of the game.  The visitors got two runs back in the fourth inning, including the first on an RBI single by senior Devin Warren (Smithfield, Maine), and scored twice more in the seventh on a sacrifice fly and a Trinity fielding error.  Trinity first-year RHO Will Simeone (Milton, Mass.) came into the game in the eighth inning and shut the door with two hitless innings of work.

Trinity senior tri-captain Erik Mohl (Milton, Mass.) earned the pitching win, allowing three hits and one earned run over 3.2 innings of relief before Simeone replaced him and recorded his first career save.  Feeney took the loss for the Huskies, while Southern Maine junior Andrew Olszak (Danvers, Mass.) was the lone player in the game with two hits.  Trinity made five errors and Southern Maine had three fielding miscues resulting in five unearned runs between the two teams.