Baseball Splits at Saint Rose as Laracy Wins Game Two for Warriors
ALBANY, NY- Earning a road split with the College of Saint Rose
(9-21, 4-10 NE-10), the Merrimack College baseball team (10-9, 6-7
NE-10) fell in game one 7-4 before freshman Mike Laracy (Weymouth,
MA) won game two in 8.0 innings on the mound.
"Mike [Laracy] was excellent," said head coach Joe
Sarno. "Once we regrouped from game one, we took
care of business in game two and it was great to see him get the
win."
After falling behind 4-0 in the first inning of game one, the
Warriors clawed back to within two on two separate occasions, but a
pair of errors gave way to five unearned runs.
To get the Warriors on the board in the third, sophomore
PJ
Farnham (Andover, MA) hit one of his two hits to drive
in Paul
Manganiello (Levittown, NY). Sophomore
Ray
Walker (Lowell, MA) also batted a pair of hits,
including a single to score a run as part of a two-run sixth
inning.
On the mound, senior captain Ryan McNeill (Lynnfield,
MA) pitched 5.0 innings allowing just one earned run, but
allowed eight hits on the day.
In game two, the freshman Laracy kept Merrimack in the game
through eight innings until the Warrior offense capitalized on a
pair of Golden Knights miscues to score all seven of their runs in
the eighth.
As part of the offensive barrage, senior captain Brendan Pyburn
(Peabody, MA) hit an RBI double in the eighth before again
getting on base as the leadoff man in the ninth.
Both Tim
Curran (Weymouth, MA) and Mike Dooling (Milford,
CT) drove in a pair of runs in the Warriors big inning
before Walker drove in a run and scored the seventh and final run
of the inning on a short stop throwing error.
The Golden Knights made a late rally in the ninth by scoring
three runs, but junior Keith Johansen
(Tyngsborough, MA) shut the door allowing one hit while
facing six batters to end the game.
"Our team knew game two was a must win," said Sarno. "And
they did whatever was necessary to get the win."
The Warriors return to their home diamond on Sunday versus Saint
Anselm College at noon for a doubleheader.
