#10 Southern Maine Closes Florida Trip by Beating Springfield 11-5
AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- The University of Southern Maine baseball team scored nine runs in the first three innings and cruised to an 11-5 victory over Springfield College in a non-conference game Thursday afternoon at Lake Myrtle Park #1.
With their third straight win, the Huskies concluded their seven-game Florida trip with a 6-1 mark and improved to 7-2 overall. The Pride dropped their third straight game to slide to 3-5 overall.
The Huskies banged out 13 hits against four Pride hurlers. Junior Andrew Hillier (Bangor, Maine) had a double and a triple with two RBI to pace the attack. Senior Jack Sylvia (Glastonbury, Conn.) had a pair of doubles and two runs scored, and junior Dylan Hapworth (Winslow, Maine) had a double and a single. Junior Andrew Olszak (Danvers, Mass.) set the table at the top of the lineup reaching base five times on two singles and three walks. Seniors Jake Dexter (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) and Devin Warren (Smithfield, Maine/Messalonskee) hit home runs in the game.
Junior right-hander Gage Feeney (Cutler, Maine/Washington Academy) earned his second win of the season going six innings. Feeney allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits and three walks while striking out three. Three relievers each pitched an inning to finish up.
Graduate student Mark Joao (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) was the lone Springfield batter with multiple hits in the game. Joao hit a solo home run in the third inning and had an RBI double in the fifth.
Freshman Brendan Kirck (Hamden, Conn./Notre Dame-West Haven) started on the hill for the Pride and took the loss. Kirck surrendered nine runs on eight hits and four walks while striking out two in two-plus innings work. The Pride got an excellent long relief stint from senior Kenny Walton (New Providence, Pa./Solanco) who gave up three hits and one run while fanning seven in five innings of work.
Olszak gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the first when he singled, took second on a Dexter sacrifice and moved up the final two bases on two wild pitches.
In the second inning with Sylvia and Olszak aboard, Dexter slammed his first home run of the season to give USM a 4-0 lead. Springfield came back in the home half scoring a pair of unearned runs, the second one scoring on senior Brandon Russo's (Lisbon, Conn./Norwich Free) bases loaded walk.
Warren led off the third with a solo shot. A walk and two singles produced the second run, and Kirck's day came to an end when he hit Sylvia with a pitch to load the bases. Olszak brought in a run with a sacrifice fly off Walton, and Hillier drove in two runs with his double.
Joao's solo home run in the third made it 9-3.
Southern Maine opens Little East Conference play this weekend playing Western Connecticut State University. The doubleheader, originally scheduled to be at Western Connecticut on Saturday, will be played at Trinity College on Sunday (12 p.m.). Springfield closes its eight-game Florida swing on Friday (3:30 p.m.) facing nationally-ranked Rowan University.
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