Baseball Blanked Twice at Southern N.H.
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Merrimack baseball team dropped a pair of games at Southern N.H. Sunday afternoon at Penmen Field. The Warriors fall to 13-24 on the year and 5-16 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Penmen improve to 23-21 overall and 10-13 in the league with wins of 4-0 and 5-0.
Mike Dooling (Milford, Conn.), Joe Mantoni (Hopedale, Mass.) and Joe Santos (Ashland, Mass.) each had a hit on the day. Dooling and Mantoni both raked a double in game one while Santos had Merrimack's lone base knock in game two.
Southern N.H. broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning, plating a pair of runs to grab a 2-0 lead. Matt Boulter and Bobby Wronski drew back-to-back one-out walks. Kevin Spatkowski drove in both runners with a two-out triple to left field for the doubleheader's first runs.
The Penman added a run in the sixth as Chris O'Neill led off the inning with a triple down the right field line. Boulter followed with a single through the right side of the infield to allow O'Neill to score, giving the home team a 3-0 advantage.
O'Neill and Boulter both laced singles through the right side to start the eighth inning for Southern N.H. Wronski moved both runners up one base with a sacrifice bunt. A groundout by Jon Massad plated the Penmen's fourth run of the contest.
Conner McMahon (Westfield, Mass.) pitched six innings on the mound for the Warriors. The rookie allowed three runs on three hits while fanning six batters. Alek Morency (Nashua, N.H.) pitched the final two innings, surrendering one run and striking out three. Timothy Flight racked up 13 strikeouts in eight innings for Southern N.H. to earn the win.
In the non-league nightcap, the Penmen scored three runs in the bottom of the third. With the bases loaded, O'Neill slapped a one-out triple to right to clear the bases.
Southern N.H. tacked on a run in the sixth as Tim Rines plated Greg Pezzuto from third with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Penmen notched their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the seventh. Boulter doubled to left center to start the frame. With two outs in the inning, Boulter stole third and came home on a throwing error.
Bill Humphrey (South Easton, Mass.) started on the mound for Merrimack, going 2.1 innings and allowing two earned runs. Steve Chamberland (Bristol, Conn.) tossed 3.2 innings in relief, striking out four batters along the way and letting up one run. Travis Terril (Hudson, N.H.) and Chris Pinette (Norwood, Mass.) each hurled one inning to close out the game for the Warriors.
"Today we didn't showcase our full hitting potential. Our bullpen really pitched well today. They combined for 10 strikeouts and only allowed two earned runs," said head coach Jim Martin.
Merrimack travels to local rival UMass Lowell for a Northeast-10 Conference night game May 3.
