Athletic Department News

Dave Geringer [Contact]

Baseball Falls to Southern Maine, Set for LEC Tournament

5/6/2006

Dave Geringer Athletic Department (508) 990-9651
Sports Information Director Tripp Athletic Center dgeringer@umassd.edu

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Southern Maine used a pair of strong pitching performances to defeat the host University of Massachusetts Dartmouth baseball team, 11-6 and 7-2, in the final Little East Conference regular season doubleheader of the season at the UMass Dartmouth Athletic Complex Saturday afternoon.

Peter Bergeron and Brett Rogers combined to limit the Corsairs to one run and 10 hits while combing to pitch 13 of the 18 innings.

UMass Dartmouth scored all six of their runs in the last two innings of the first game, after the Huskies had built an 11-0 lead. Sophomore right fielder Dylan Zygmont (Swansea, MA/Case HS) singled in a run in the eighth, and sophomore center fielder Kevin Narey (Lynn, MA/Lynn HS), freshman third baseman Dave McGuire (Plainville, MA/King Philip Regional HS), freshman second baseman Peter Gomez (Bridgewater, MA/Bridgewater-Raynham HS) and senior first baseman Dan Mancini (Marlboro, MA/ Marlboro HS) each singled in a run in a five-run ninth inning.

Chris Burleson, Max Arsenault and Stefan Black each drove in two runs for Southern Maine, which scored at least one run in every at-bat between the second and seventh innings. Bergeron got the win with seven shutout innings, improving to 3-3, while junior lefthander Will Mahoney (Mattapoisett, MA/Old Rochester HS) started and took the loss for the Corsairs, falling to 4-4.

Gomez' RBI single in the bottom of the first inning of the nightcap tied the game after USM took a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning The Huskies broke a 1-1 tie with RBI doubles by Eddie Skeffington and Arsenault in the fifth. RBI singles by Black and Mike D'Andrea in the sixth made it 5-1. Zygmont's solo homer in the eighth made it 5-2 before the Huskies added a pair of unearned runs in the ninth to close the scoring.

Rogers earned the victory and improved to 3-3, while Pat Foley pitched the final three innings to earn his second save. Senior right-hander Lee Marques (Fall River, MA/Diman Regional HS) started and took the loss, falling to 1-4.

"We really didn't hit the ball in the second game," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Bob Curran. "In the first game, Will had a lot of guys 0-2 but couldn't close them out and they scored some runs. We'll get ready and go up to the tournament and see what we can do."

UMass Dartmouth fell to 9-25 and 5-9 in the Little East Conference, but qualified for next week's conference tournament as the sixth seed. USM improved to 27-13 and 11-3, and clinched first place and the right to host next week's tournament. The teams will meet again in a first round game Wednesday at Southern Maine.

UMASS DARTMOUTH BASEBALL