NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- Senior right fielder Jake Studley (Barrington, R.I.) and junior second baseman Mike Maher (Jefferson, Mass.) combined for seven hits and five runs batted in to lead the No. 14 Wheaton College (Mass.) baseball team to a 14-4 victory over Brandeis University at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, Mass. The Lyons, who are ranked nationally in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association/D3baseball.com Coaches Poll, improve to 1-0 following their season opener, while the Judges fall to 1-2 on the season.
Every hitter in the Wheaton starting nine collected at least one hit and eight of nine drove in at least one run in the team's 19-hit, 14-run outburst. The run total is the highest in a season-opener for the Lyons since a 14-5 win over Nichols College on March 4, 2018 and the hit total is the most in a game to begin a campaign since they rapped out 19 hits vs. Babson College on March 14, 1999. Wheaton scored at least one run in every inning, a feat the Lyons accomplished last season vs. Emerson College on March 20 in their second game of the year. Both teams combined for five home runs this afternoon, including three from Wheaton.
Studley finished the day going 4-4 with two doubles, a home run, two RBI, three runs scored and a walk for the Lyons, while Maher knocked in a game-high three runs after going 3-4 with a pair of doubles, three runs scored and two walks. Senior first baseman Drew Spirito (Cranston, R.I.) and first year left fielder Kevin Matos (Lawrence, Mass.) also homered and drove in two runs apiece. In addition, Spirito doubled and scored a pair of runs. Senior right-handed starter Griffin Young (Dover, N.H.) allowed just one run on three hits and a walk, while striking out eight in six innings to earn the victory. Junior Max Pierce (Scituate, R.I.) (2/3 IP), sophomore Matthew Pizzelli (Weymouth, Mass.) (1 IP) and junior Zachary Nichols (Chicopee, Mass.) (1 IP) combined to toss two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief with each giving up just one hit apiece. Nichols fanned two batters in his appearance.
Junior third baseman Brian King (Palos Verde, Calif.) paced Brandeis, going 3-4 with a solo long ball and a run scored. Graduate student righty Brandon Musto (Milton, Mass.) suffered the loss, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks to go with two strikeouts in two innings of work.
Studley gave Wheaton an early 1-0 lead with a two-out solo homer in the top of the first inning. The Judges flexed some muscle of their own in the bottom of the frame when graduate student first baseman Mike Khoury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) went deep with a one-out long ball to knot the game at 1-1.
Brandeis didn't crack the run column again until the seventh inning, while the Lyons put 11 unanswered runs on the board to take a 12-1 lead. Spirito opened the second by being hit by a pitch and raced around the bases ahead of a run-scoring double to center field off the bat of Maher. Matos followed with a two-run jack to make his first collegiate hit a memorable one and give Wheaton a 4-1 lead. Sophomore center fielder AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) worked a one out walk and later scored on a run-producing single to right field from senior catcher Zach DeMattio (North Attleoboro, Mass.) to cap a four-run frame and set the visitors with a 5-1 lead.
Guindon knocked in a run with a ground out in the third and junior third baseman Nick Croteau (Cumberland, R.I.) followed with a double to center to plate junior Cavan Brady (Great Barrington, Mass.), who had previously singled from the nine-hole, to increase the Lyons' cushion to 7-1.
Spirito homered in the top of the fourth and then doubled home Studley with the team's ninth run in the fifth. Senior shortstop Stephen Quigley (Halifax, Mass.) became the last hitter in the lineup to collect a hit, when he singled in the inning and later scampered home on a Maher ground out for a 10-1 advantage. Croteau singled and scored on an RBI double from Studley in the sixth and Brady knocked in Maher with a sacrifice fly to left in the seventh to deliver the 12th run for Wheaton.
King injected some life into the dormant offense for the Judges with a homer in the seventh, before sophomore shortstop Nick Heafey (Florence, Mass.) struck a two-run single to left to pull the home team to within 12-4 after seven complete innings. It would be the final runs of the day for Brandeis as the Lyons' bullpen closed the door.
Wheaton tacked on single runs in the eighth and ninth for good measure. Maher laced a two-out RBI single through the middle to drive in Studley, who had led off the frame with his second double, and sophomore Amedeo Ucci Jr (Warwick, R.I.) roped a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to center to bring home Brady with the game's final run.
The Lyons return to the NEBC on Tuesday, March 8 when they take on Nichols College at 2:30 p.m., while the Judges travel to Dorchester, Mass. on March 9 to face University of Massachusetts Boston for a 3:00 p.m. first pitch.