NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – The Nichols College baseball team fell to the University of Southern Maine, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon in non-conference action at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, Mass.
 
The Bison dip to 5-8 overall, while the Huskies move up to 6-5 on the year. Nichols returns to action tomorrow afternoon when they take on New England College at 3:00 p.m. back at the New England Baseball Complex.
 
Junior Joe Assenza led the Nichols offense, going 1-for-3 with a run scored, while senior Chris Anderson and sophomore Christian Naccari each added 1-for-4 days. Sophomore Christopher Cerniglia picked up an RBI, while junior Michael Carmody scored the other run for the Bison.
 
Senior StigErik McElhinney suffered the setback for the Bison, allowing five runs on 12 hits with three walks and three strikeouts in six innings of work. Sophomore Andrew Charbonneau tossed a pair of scoreless innings while only giving up two hits, while sophomore Brodie Altiere struck out one and only gave up one hit in 1.0 innings pitched.
 
USM sophomore Gage Feeney picked up the win for the Huskies, allowing only one hit and a pair of unearned runs with a pair of strikeouts in seven innings of work. Junior Jake Dexter gave up one hit and struck out two batters to earn his third save of the season.
 
Offensively, the Huskies had five players record multi-hit games led by a 4-for-5 showing from sophomore Andrew Hillier. Freshman Sam Troiano went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while junior Zach Quintal (2-for-5, RBI, two runs), junior Devin Warren (3-for-4, RBI, run), and freshman Jason Komulainen (2-for-5) also had strong days for Southern Maine.
 
The Huskies opened the scoring in the top of the second as sophomore Anthony Degifico drove in Hillier with an RBI single to give Southern Maine a 1-0 lead. USM would two more runs in both the third and fourth innings to take a 5-0 lead after four innings of play.
 
The Bison broke through in their half of the fifth as Carmody was hit by a pitch before Joe Assenza smoked a ball to second, and the second baseman tried to cut down Carmody at second, but his throw sailed into leftfield allowing both runners to move up a base with one out. Carmody would come into score on a passed ball before Cerniglia drove in Assenza with a sac fly to cut the deficit to 5-2.
 
Unfortunately, Nichols would be held to only two hits the rest of the way as Southern Maine held on for the 5-2 win.
 
All-Time Series
Sunday marked the 13th meeting between the two teams and Southern Maine pulled ahead in the series, 7-6, with the win.