Sorenson Tosses Quality Start as Baseball Hangs On for 10-7 Win vs. Assumption
Links: Box Score
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Freshman Riley Sorenson (Sandwich, Mass.) threw six innings of two-run ball and benefitted from a seven-run first inning as the Merrimack College baseball team held off the Assumption Greyhounds, 10-7, on Wednesday afternoon from the Warrior Baseball Diamond
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 10, Assumption 7
Records: Merrimack (19-10, 3-1 NE Div.) | Assumption (13-15, 4-2 NE Div.)
Location: Warrior Baseball Diamond | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
Sorenson pitched well to begin his first career start, striking out five batters through four innings including two in the first frame alone. Merrimack's offense followed suit with a seven-run first to support the rookie hurler.
With two outs and Tyler Lyne (Agawam, Mass.) on second base, first baseman Sean O'Neill (Norwood, Mass.) drove a pitch over the leftfield fence for his second homer of the year. That was the first of four extra-base hits in the inning, as the Warriors scored all seven runs with two outs. The round-tripper started the rally, with Merrimack sending 11 batters to the plate in the inning. Sophomore Matt Nicholson (Rockland, Mass.) and freshman Matthew Ronai (Orange, Conn.) hit back-to-back RBI doubles. An error extended the frame before Bobby Losanno (Peabody, Mass) roped a run-scoring triple and Mike Forgione (North Branford, Conn.) hit him home with a single to left field.
Merrimack scored once more in the fifth to take an 8-0 advantage into the top of the sixth. After allowing his first two runs and facing a second-and-third situation with only one out, Sorenson buckled down to conclude his outing on an inning-ending double play.
Ronai's single in the seventh followed by a sacrifice fly from Pat Florence (Lowell, Mass.) proved to be important insurance tallies, as the Greyhounds mounted a ninth-inning rally.
Sophomore Joe Westerman (Maynard, Mass.) worked two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, before two errors in the ninth contributed to five Greyhounds' runs crossing the plate. Junior Matt DiNello (Southington, Conn.) relieved him and got the final two outs of the game on strikeouts, with the go-ahead run standing at the plate on both occasions.
Inside The Numbers
- Sorenson's final line (W, 2-0): 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K's
- The rookie's first career start fell in the win column, as he entered the game with a sub-1.00 ERA over five appearances out of the bullpen. All five of his strikeouts came within the first three frames, leaving the outing after 95 pitches, the most of his young career
- After hitting his first-ever round tripper on the road earlier this year, O'Neill's long ball in the first marked his first-career homer at the Warrior Baseball Diamond. The ball was an opposite-field shot, sailing over the 375 marker in left-center field
- Merrimack's No. 4-7 hitters (O'Neill, Brown, Nicholson and Ronai) carried the lineup, accounting for eight hits in 13 at-bats, knocking in six runs and scoring six more
- DiNello's save marked the first of his three-year career, making his 17th appearance
Up Next
The Navy and Gold return home tomorrow afternoon when they take on Saint Anselm at 3:30 p.m. The Hawks got the better of the Warriors in the season's first meeting, 2-1.
--
For continuing coverage of Merrimack College Athletics, visit MerrimackAthletics.com and follow the Warriors on Twitter and on Facebook.
