Baseball Stymied at Saint Anselm, Drops Doubleheader
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Merrimack baseball team suffered two losses at Saint Anselm Sunday afternoon. The Warriors sink to 8-15 overall and 1-9 in the Northeast-10 Conference with the setbacks. The Hawks picked up 10-0 and 13-1 decisions to improve to 15-14 on the season and 6-7 in the league.
Brett Julian (Weymouth, Mass.) and Mark O'Flynn (Ipswich, Mass.) each tallied a pair of hits on the afternoon for Merrimack.
Saint Anselm opened the scoring with a two-run homer by James Garrigan to give the home team a 2-0 lead. The Hawks added a third run in the frame to push the advantage to 3-0.
A double down the left field line by Tito Lluberes plated Saint Anselm's fourth run of the game in the second inning. Lluberes drove in the Hawks' fifth run in the fourth frame.
Saint Anselm doubled its lead to 10 runs with a pair of home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Chris Pinette (Norwood, Mass.) tossed five innings on the mound for the Warriors and fanned three. Steve Chamberland (Bristol, Conn.) worked three relief innings with one strikeout.
It was Merrimack getting the scoring started in game two. O'Flynn led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error. After Eddie Newton (North Billerica, Mass.) sacrificed O'Flynn to third with a bunt, Tim Curran (South Weymouth, Mass.) knocked him in with a ground out to the first baseman to give the Warriors their first lead of the day, 1-0.
The Hawks posted three runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning to gain a 3-1 advantage. In the second frame, Saint Anselm manufactured four more runs to take a 7-1 edge.
Daniel DeCoste tacked on another run in the fourth inning with a solo homer to lift the Hawks' lead to 8-1.
Saint Anselm cushioned its advantage with four runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to seal the win.
Charles Dunklee (Hampden, Mass.) raked his first collegiate base knock with a pinch hit single through the right side of the infield in the eighth inning.
Merrimack returns to action Tuesday, April 12 with a non-league road contest at Assumption. The Warriors return home to face the Hawks Wednesday, April 13 in a Northeast-10 tilt.
