Baseball Stumbles on the Road at Le Moyne
SYRACUSE, NY- The Merrimack baseball team dropped a pair of contests at Le Moyne Saturday afternoon, falling 11-2 and 10-0. The Warriors drift to 9-11 overall while the Dolphins jump to 15-4 on the year.
John Pastyrnak (Bristol, CT) and Joe Mantoni (Northbridge, MA) paced Merrimack offensively with two base knocks each. Alan Pastyrnak (Bristol, CT) and Mantoni drove in the visitors' two runs on the day. Mark O'Flynn (Ipswich, MA) stole a pair of bases in the twinbill and Casey Cotter (North Hampton, NH) slid in safely in his only stolen base attempt.
"We played hard today against a great team," said head coach Jim Martin. "We will look to get things heading in the right direction tomorrow with another doubleheader."
Le Moyne grabbed an early 1-0 lead, pushing a run across in the bottom of the first inning. Zack Wiley doubled home Brett Botsford from third.
The Warriors knotted the score at 1-1 in the third as Mantoni's single to left plated Cotter for his sixth RBI of the season.
The Dolphins answered with a four-run outburst in the home half of the frame. Matt Marra sent a single through the left side of the infield to score Wiley for the go-ahead run. A single off the bat of Brian Stinson doubled the hosts' lead as Marra crossed the plate. Pat Wiese capped off the scoring with a two-out home run to score a pair.
Merrimack loaded the bases in the fourth with Dionys Quezada (Lawrence, MA) and Alex Ciullo (Fall River, MA) each reaching base after being hit by a pitch and Eddie Newton (North Billerica, MA) hitting into a fielder's choice. Alan Pastyrnak recorded his 12th RBI of the year as his fielder's choice allowed Quezada to touch home and cut the deficit in half, 4-2.
Le Moyne restored its four-run advantage in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs. Wiley singled up the middle and Marra picked up a sacrifice fly to push the score to 6-2.
Botsford blasted a solo homer to tack on the Dolphins' seventh run of the game in the sixth inning. The home side added two runs in the seventh as Paul Spiecher laced a two-run single up the middle. Max Nagelsmith drove in Le Moyne's final run of the opening tilt in the eighth with a single to center.
Travis Terrill (Hudson, NH) started the game and went four innings on the hill. Matt Solar (Sterling, MA) pitched three relief innings in his first appearance of the 2012 campaign. Chris Pinette (Norwood, MA) worked the eighth inning on the mound. All three Merrimack pitchers fanned two batters in the contest.
In the nightcap, the Dolphins struck for three runs on three hits in the third to open the scoring. Le Moyne posted seven runs in the fifth inning on seven hits, including a two-run homer by Matthew Ciraco.
Brett Julian (Weymouth, MA) tossed 4.2 innings in his second start of the year and struck out two batters. Tyler Cuming (Red Bank, NJ) and Bill Humphrey (South Easton, MA) combined to pitch 3.1 scoreless innings in relief action. Cuming fanned one batter in 2.1 innings and Humphrey recorded two strikeouts in one inning.
Merrimack will square off against The College of Saint Rose March 25 before returning to North Andover.
