Baseball Sweeps Twinbill against Mercy 5-2, 4-2
LANTANA, FL- The Merrimack baseball team claimed a pair of victories over Mercy Friday afternoon to stretch its winning streak to seven. The Warriors improve to 8-6 overall while the Mavericks slump to 0-12 on the year.
Merrimack captured a 5-2 win in game one before prevailing 4-2 in the nightcap. The Warriors will look to keep rolling with a non-league contest against Molloy March 17.
Merrimack's seven-straight wins marks the longest unbeaten streak since the 1999 campaign. That season, the Warriors rattled off 10-consecutive victories en route to a 23-23 overall record.
Tim Curran (Weymouth, MA) paced Merrimack's offense with four hits on the day. Casey Cotter (North Hampton, NH) picked up a pair of hits, three RBIs and two stolen bases. Dionys Quezada (Lawrence, MA), Brett Julian (Weymouth, MA) and Joe Mantoni (Northbridge, MA) all collected a pair of hits in the two-game set.
"Another couple of good wins today for our team. Our guys performed well in pressure situations, especially in the sixth down by one in game two," said head coach Jim Martin. "I am very proud of our wins today and we look forward to tomorrow's game."
The Warriors plated the game's first run in the top of the first inning as Cotter drove in Curran with a groundout to the right side of the infield. Merrimack extended its advantage to 3-0 in the third frame on a two-run double by Quezada.
Mercy got on the board in the home half of the third with a run to cut the deficit to 3-1.
The Warriors restored their three-run lead in the fourth as Curran laced a single to plate Alex Ciullo (Fall River, MA).
The Mavericks tacked on their second run of the contest in the bottom of the seventh.
Travis Terrill (Hudson, NH) started game one on the mound for Merrimack and tossed six innings while racking up three strikeouts. Alek Morency (Nashua, NH) worked two innings of relief and got the Warriors out of a jam in the seventh while fanning a pair of batters. Julian came on in the ninth to finish the game and secure his second save of the year.
In game two, Mercy struck early to race out to a 1-0 edge in the top of the first before Merrimack knotted the contest at 1-1 with a run in the bottom half. Alan Pastyrnak (Bristol, CT) scampered home on a single by Curran to level the score.
A run in the fifth inning lifted the Mavericks to their first lead of the day, 2-1.
Down by one heading into the sixth inning, Merrimack battled back to get the first two batters of the frame on base. Cotter connected on a two-run single with no outs to reclaim the lead and tilt the score in favor of the Warriors, 3-2. Mark O'Flynn (Ipswich, MA) lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to allow Cotter to tag up and cross the plate to expand the margin to two.
Joe Carnevale (East Providence, RI) pitched the first five innings of the game and struck out four batsmen. Danny Karasinski (Staten Island, NY) closed the game with two scoreless innings to pick up his first collegiate victory on the hill.
