Baseball Suffers 11-4 Setback at Stonehill
EASTON, Mass. – The Merrimack baseball team fell 11-4 to Stonehill, the defending Northeast-10 Tournament champions, Sunday afternoon at Lou Gorman Field. The Warriors drop to 6-7 on the year and 0-3 in conference play. The Skyhawks improve to 15-7 overall and 1-2 in the Northeast-10.
Stonehill erupted to an 8-0 lead in the first inning. The Skyhawks utilized six hits in the frame to push the eight runs across the plate.
In the third, the home team added another run on a single up the middle by Scott Hackett. Stonehill increased its lead to 10-0 in the fourth inning with a leadoff home run by Angelo Bruno.
Joe Mantoni (Hopedale, Mass.) put Merrimack on the board with a leadoff solo homer to centerfield in the top of the fifth, the Warriors' first longball of the season.
The Skyhawks plated their 11th run of the day in the bottom half of the sixth inning.
Alex Ciullo (Fall River, Mass.), PJ Farnham (Andover, Mass.) and Dan Bresciani (Hopedale, Mass.) all drew one-out walks to load the bases for the Warriors in the top of the ninth. Sam Novicki (Winchester, Mass.) recorded a pinch-hit RBI to score Ciullo. Farnham scored on a throwing error by the shortstop to cut the home team's lead to 11-3.
Merrimack loaded the bases later in the inning as Beau Batchelor (Peabody, Mass.) and Paul Manganiello (Levittown, N.Y.) walked. Brandon Cox (Nashua, N.H.) plated Novicki with a single to center field to cap off the scoring.
Steve Chamberland (Bristol, Conn.) pitched 3.2 innings of relief and fanned a pair of batters for the Warriors. Brian Wolfendale (Methuen, Mass.) yielded one run in three innings of work on the mound while striking out three.
The Warriors return to the diamond March 28 at 3:30 p.m. as they host Assumption in a non-league contest.
