March 17, 2017

Centenary win streak hits ten games

More news about: Alvernia | Centenary (La.) | Kean | Marietta | Schreiner
Seamus Kenneally had a pair of doubles against No. 25 North Central.
Marietta photo by Beth Crent

Marietta split a pair of games in the Snowbird Baseball Classic. The Pioneers made it two in a row against ranked teams beating No. 25 North Central, 7-2, in the first game and then dropped a 9-2 decision to Adrian. Marietta erupted for five runs in the top of the ninth inning breaking a 2-2 tie in the win over North Central but could not keep the offense going in the loss to Adrian.

St. Scholastica and Rowan met for the first time on the diamond and each came away with a win. The Saints opened the day plating four runs in the first inning, but could not hold off the Profs in a 7-4 defeat. The second game of the doubleheader saw the Saints again jump out to an early lead, but this time would hold off a late rally from the Profs to earn the split by a final of 6-3.

WPI sophomore Ryan Tropeano broke the game open with a three-run inside the park home run in a 10-3 non-league triumph over visiting Mass. Maritime at the New England Baseball Complex. Tropeano went 2-for-3 with three RBI and Anthony Capuano also added a home run in a 2-for-4 day.

Photo Gallaries: St. Mary's (Minn) vs Aurora || Calvin vs Aurora ||  Wheaton (Ill.) vs St. Mary's (Minn.)

Ripon ended their 2017 Spring Trip in style, defeating McDaniel College in convincing fashion by a score of 14-3. The Red Hawks finished the game with 17 hits, while the top six batters in the order all scored at least two runs. Randy Finger led Ripon with a 4-for-5 performance at the plate, which included four RBI and three runs scored.

No. 8 UW-La Crosse earned a 4-2 victory over Southern Maine at Pat Thomas Stadium. Caleb Boushley and Caleb Willems combined for the win on the pitching mound for UWL. Boushley earned the win, going 8.0 innings, allowing eight hits, two runs (one earned) and one walk with six strikeouts.  Willems picked up his third save of the season, pitching 1.0 inning, allowing one hit while striking out one.

York got the go-ahead run on a bases loaded hit batter and then hung on the in the bottom of the ninth to earn a 4-3 Capital Athletic Conference road win at St. Mary's. The Spartans have now won three straight.

A six-run sixth inning powered Hope to a 13-7 win against Roger Williams, in the Flying Dutchmen's first spring break game in Florida. The Flying Dutchmen sent 12 batters to the plate in the sixth inning that broake a 5-5 tie.

McMurry and Belhaven split an ASC doubleheader at Walt Driggers Field. The War Hawks lost the opener to the Blazers by a 2-1 score, before bouncing back to take the nightcap, 7-2. In the first contest, McMurry's Juan Valadez and BU's Tanner Cable were locked in a classic pitchers' duel.  Both men tossed complete games in the seven-inning bout, with both surrendering four hits. Cable had nine strikeouts compared to four by Valadez, but the McM hurler walked four and hit two batters. In game two, McMurry got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to make it 3-0 right out of the gate and responded after a pair of runs by Belhaven with four unanswered runs to put the lead out of reach, 7-2.

Rookie Justin Hernandez spun eight innings of shutout ball and Richie Ferguson shut the door in the ninth as Kean handed Alvernia their first loss of the season by the final of 1-0. Hernandez allowed just four hits (all singles) and struck out five, issuing no walks.  Ferguson threw five pitches and recorded three outs, a double play up the middle and a groundout, to earn his first save of the year.

Jamie Andriot won his fifth win of the season as Texas-Dallas shutout LeTourneau on Friday.
Texas-Dallas athletics photo

No. 14 Texas-Dallas opened their ASC series with LeTourneau with an 8-0 win. Junior right-hander Jamie Andriot kept his spotless record after fanning 11 while giving up just four hits in seven scoreless innings to open the game for the Comets. Logan McPherson and Junior Escobar each tossed a scoreless inning as the Comets recorded their fourth shutout victory of the season. The Comets opened the scoring with two runs in the 3rd and blew open the game with a six-run fifth inning as they amassed eight hits off of three LeTourneau hurlers

Behind another strong pitching performance, Benedictine secured a third consecutive win, downing Greenville 4-1 in the second game of their spring break venture to Florida. James Wright worked six blank innings, allowing just two hits with no walks and six strikeouts.

Concordia (Wisc.) finished its 2017 spring trip to Arizona the way they started it: with a sweep of a doubleheader. The Falcons defeated Augsburg twice by scores of 5-4 and 3-1. Dan Ranieri and Kyle Washburn paced the Facons offense in game one with Bryan Thomas and Michael Szeszol powering Concordia in games two.

Oglethorpe got eight consecutive runs over the middle innings against the visiting MIT Engineers, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to pull away from the visitors en route to an 8-3 victory in the first of a 3-game series between the two teams. The Stormy Petrels pounded out 10 hits on the afternoon while Oglethorpe pitching held the Engineers to 6 hits over the course of the game.

Brockport started conference play with a pair of wins, defeating Plattsburgh in both ends of the doubleheader. Jason Hellwig picked up the win in the opener, throwing the final two innings, whil Sam McCumiskey went the distance in game two, earning his fourth win of the season.

The Wheaton (Ill.) Thunder opened the home portion of its 2017 season with a game against Saint Mary's (Minn.) in the opening day of the Wheaton Round Robin tournament. Wheaton extended its win-streak to six games with a 5-3 victory against the Cardinals. Saint Mary's opened the tournament with a 10-0 victory against Aurora and Aurora earned an 8-5 win against Calvin in the second game.

No. 24 Suffolk could not overcome an early deficit as Rutgers-Camden took down the Rams, 14-5, at Lake Myrtle Park Field apart of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.  Rutgers Camden hit early and often to take an early 5-0 lead after the top of the first that blossomed to a 14-0 advantage after five complete innings.

With runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth inning, senior Dave Murphy drove in the game-winning run to give UMass-Boston a 4-3 walk off win over the UW-Oshkosh at the Winter Haven Park Complex. The Beacons built a three run lead just to see it slip away to set up the walk-off.

UMass-Dartmouth fell in the first game against Endicott 5-3, but rebounded for an 11-4 victory as the bats came alive in the night cap at the Chain of Lakes Complex. The Corsairs pitching staff shined in the double header against Endicott, as three pitchers combined to throw 14.0 innings and only allowed two earned runs.

Centenary (La.) defeated Schreiner 10-6 in the opener of their ASC series for their tenth straight win. Down 5-3 heading to the bottom of the third, the Gents took advantage of the Schreiner's outfielders not getting very good reads on balls hit into the Shreveport skyline at dusk. With one out and facing a 1-2 count, freshman Cody Crowder poked a ball through the right side. Senior Michael Schimpf walked to put two on for junior Chris Zapata. The SCAC RBI leader skied a ball to left, but the leftfielder was unable to pick up the ball. It fell in for a double, scoring Crowder and moving Schimpf to third. Junior Ian Graham followed with a deep fly ball to center that fell in for a triple to put the Gents up for good.

Rutgers-Newark improved to a sparkling 8-3 on the season with a pair of big wins over Alfred State in South Carolina. Rutgers-Newark won the opener 18-8, and rolled 19-5 in the night cap. The same two teams will battle it out Saturday starting at 9 a.m. The two games will represent the final contests of Rutger-Newark's Spring Break trip in Myrtle Beach.

 
Nate Marshall is 2-0 with two complete games in both his starts this season.
  Westfield athletics photo

The solid pitching and strong hitting continued for Westfield State, as the Owls posted their seventh-straight win by sweeping a doubleheader from Centenary (N.J) morning at Chain O'Lakes Park. Nate Barnes spun a complete game in game 1, a 9-2 win, and Nate Marshall answered the bell in the second game as Westfield won by a 9-3 final.

Nichols defeated SUNY Canton 9-3 in non-conference action in the Snowbird Classic. Coming off of three losses, the Bison struck for five runs over the first two innings, setting the tone for the game. Cam Cook and Christopher Cerniglia extended their team-leading hitting streaks to seven games – with Cook finishing 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and three runs scored and Cerniglia going 1-for-3 with two walks and a pair of runs. The Bison's followed this win with another, a 10-7 win over Denison.

The No. 6 ranked UW-Whitewater posted eight first-inning runs to take early control in a 10-2 triumph over Webster in a non-conference affair at the RussMatt Invitational at Lake Myrtle Park.  The Warhawks' first eight batters reached based on a combination of six hits and two walks. All scored with the final two runs coming on a Jordan Kuczynski home run. Webster came back with two runs of their own but the die was set for a Warhawks win.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor used timely hitting and dominant pitching to post a 3-1 victory over Concordia-Texas in Austin. Nathan Kent scattered six hits over seven and a third innings to even his record at 2-2. Aaron Barteau struck out four batters in one and two-thirds innings to notch his third save of the year. It was the 11th save of Barteau's career, breaking a tie with Sam VanHoozer to make Barteau the Cru's DIII era leader in saves.

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