Mantoni Carries Merrimack Past Stonehill, 2-1; Warriors Win Fourth Straight

3/24/2010 12:00:00 AM

EASTON, MA – In his first career start, freshman Joe Mantoni (Hopedale, MA) pitched six innings without allowing an earned run for the Merrimack College baseball team to help the Warriors to a 2-1 win at Stonehill College Wednesday afternoon in non-Conference play.

With the win, Merrimack improves to 4-1 overall and remains at 2-0 in Northeast-10 Conference play.

“We played well enough to win today,” said head coach Joe Sarno following the non-Conference confrontation.  “Overall though we need to improve our hitting with guys in scoring position.”

Now batting .308 on the year, the Warriors knocked 12 hits on Wednesday, but only mustered two runs with their difficulties of getting runners around the diamond.  The Warriors left 12 runners on base, including five in the final two innings.

The Warriors fell behind 1-0 in the second inning on an unearned run, but the Warriors shored up their defense while allowing just four hits over the next seven innings.

In a fourth inning in which Merrimack scored both runs, senior captain Brendan Pyburn (Peabody, MA) led off with one of his three hits before scoring on a Mike Dooling (Milford, CT) single to right field.  Dooling would later come home on a Tim Curran (South Weymouth, MA) single up the middle.  Dooling, Curran and sophomore PJ Farnham (Andover, MA) all had a pair of hits on the afternoon.

Seniors Ryan O'Rourke (Worcester, MA) and Dylan Ellis (Gloucester, MA) each pitched an inning of without allowing a run while O'Rourke picked up the save and Ellis lowered his season ERA to 1.69.

For the Warriors, it marks the team's fourth straight win—the longest since mid-March a year ago when Merrimack ran off five straight in non-Conference play against St. Thomas Aquinas and Philadelphia University.

The Warriors are back in action tomorrow (Thursday) against Assumption College in non-Conference action in Worcester, Massachusetts at 3:30pm.  Last weekend, Merrimack swept the Greyhounds at home in a pair of Conference games, 10-2 and 8-0.