Baseball Earns Playoff Berth on Final Day of Regular Season
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – With a 3-2 win over Southern New
Hampshire University behind freshman Mike Laracy (Weymouth,
MA), the Merrimack College baseball team (19-17, 14-12
NE-10) earned the first playoff berth in head coach Joe
Sarno's seven years at Merrimack on Sunday at Warrior
Field.
Improving to 14-12 in Conference play, the Warriors found
themselves in a tie with UMass-Lowell, but Merrimack earned the
sixth and final playoff spot by virtue of the Northeast-10
tiebreaker. The Warriors will commence postseason play on
Thursday, May 6 at Franklin Pierce University (see below).
“It's tremendous that we're in the playoffs, but our work
has just begun,” said head coach Joe Sarno. “The
way our team came down the stretch is a testament to our senior
leadership and the guys never quitting. Even though we'll
celebrate this win today, we're still focused on what we can do
starting on Thursday because it's truly anyone's game come
post-season.”
For Laracy on Sunday, the lefty improved to 4-0 on the season
with 7.1 innings and one earned run allowed on four hits.
Sophomore Tim Curran (South
Weymouth, MA) tallied three hits in four at-bats, but it
was seniors Brendan Pyburn
(Peabody, MA) and Ed Medeiros (Seekonk,
MA) who came through on 'Senior Day' with an RBI each.
With a hit, Pyburn is also now two hits shy of 200 for his
career and would be the third player in Merrimack baseball history
to do so.
Sophomore Ray Walker (Lowell,
MA) also drove in a run in the second to give the Warriors
an early 1-0 lead.
In one inning pitched for his fourth save of the season, senior
captain Ryan O'Rourke
(Worcester, MA) struck out one and is now one strikeout
shy of tying the school record for career strikeouts (183) heading
into the playoffs.
In game two—a non-Conference game—the Warriors fell
6-1 as the home team only registered two hits to the Penmen's 13
hits. Senior captain Ryan McNeill
(Lynnfield, MA) got the start, going 4.0 innings but fell
to 3-3 on the season with the loss.
Seeding for the Northeast-10
Conference tournament (May 6-9 at Franklin Pierce) is:
#1 Southern Connecticut
#2 Franklin Pierce
#3 New Haven
#4 Stonehill
#5 Adelphi
#6 Merrimack
