BROCKTON, Mass. – After a close game one, baseball would pound out 11 runs on 15 hits to earn a Little East Conference sweep over Plymouth State University Saturday afternoon at Campanelli Stadium.
Winners of seven of their last eight games, the Beacons improved to 17-12 overall, 7-5 in the LEC with Saturday's sweep. For the Panthers they dropped to 12-21, 3-9 in the conference. The sweep also marked the second time in the last three years that the Beacons recorded the back-to-back victories over their longtime conference rivals.
Timely hitting in both games, kept the Beacons out in front for most of the afternoon. Starters Kyle Szatrowski (Agawam, Mass.) and Daniel Mantoni (Northbridge, Mass.) both earned the victories for the first time this season in a conference doubleheader.
Szatrowski went seven complete and allowed just two runs on nine hits and five strikeouts. For Mantoni, he last 5.1 and also had five strikeouts to improve to 3-1 on the season.
In total the Beacons pounded out a combined 28 hits respectively, which included a home run in both games.
GAME ONE – UMass Boston 4, Plymouth State University 3
After taking an early 2-0 lead, the Panthers tied the game at 2-2 in the top half of the sixth inning. However with one swing of the bat by junior Luke Nagle (Pembroke, Mass.), the Beacons found themselves back out in front, following his two-run blast over the right field wall. Nagle, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, plated Anthony Searles (Shelton, Conn.), who started off the inning with a double.
Plymouth State would drive in their third run of the contest in the top of the eighth on an RBI double by Justin Walsh with two outs on the board. UMass would get out of the inning on a fly out to keep their lead at one.
The Panthers would allow a double in the bottom of the eighth, by Nick Brothers (Danville, Calif.), but would get out of the inning without allowing another Beacons run.
Looking to get the tying run in the top of the ninth off the Panthers had to face senior closer Josh Cummiskey (Lowell, Mass.). After getting the first batter to groundout to Cummiskey, the Panthers got a runner on first base following an infield error. With the tying run now on base, the Panthers tried to move their baserunner over, but in the process grounded into a 6-3 double play to end the game.
For Cummiskey, the save marked his team-leading fourth of the year, as the righty went 1.1, allowing the lone hit.
Brothers had one his best days at the plate, as he finished just a home run shy of the cycle. Searles also had a big game one finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored. Dave Hall led the Panthers at the plate with a 2-for-5 showing. He also had an RBI and a run scored.
Matt Doxter was handed the loss, his fourth, after allowing all four runs on 11 hits in five innings of work. He also had three K's and one walk.
GAME TWO – UMass Boston 11, Plymouth State University 5
In the nightcap, Plymouth State struck first in the top half of the opening inning, as they took advantage of a Beacons error to make it 1-0. The Panthers would maintain that lead, as they held the Beacons bats to just two hits prior to the bottom half of the third.
In that half inning, the Beacons would unload four runs on six hits to make it three-run ball game (4-1). A double by Mantoni would drive in a pair of runs, while an RBI double by Todd Ezold (Westfield, Mass.) and an RBI single by Nagle would give the Beacons some breathing room.
One inning later, UMass pushed their lead to six, as they drove in three more runs on three hits to make it 7-1. Ezold drove in the first run of the inning on single to deep center field which scored Brothers. Daniel Bonito (Swampscott, Mass.) would then crush his first home run of the year, on a 1-0, count, to give the Beacons some insurance. The two-run shot was a line drive over the right field wall.
After a scoreless fifth, the Panthers would get their biggest offensive inning in the top of the sixth scoring three runs to make it 7-4, with a lot of baseball left to play. The three runs by Plymouth State would come off of five hits,
The Beacons would push their lead back to four in the bottom of the same inning on a sac-fly by Nagle, which plated Mantoni. UMass put the final nails in the Panthers coffin in the seventh and eighth innings, as they tacked on three more runs to blow the game open. Brothers would rip an RBI single in the seventh, while in the eighth the Beacons would score their first run of the inning on a passed ball, while their second run was the result of a wild pitch.
Bonito would cap-off his best day as a Beacon going 3-for-5 in the game-two win, with two RBI and two runs scored. Brothers went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a runs scored in the game two win.
Curtis Arsenault lasted just 3.2 for the Panthers, and allowed seven runs, all earned, on 11 hits.
Baseball returns to action tomorrow when they travel to Worcester State University for a 1 p.m. non-conference game.