ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack College Baseball team walked off LIU with three home runs in the bottom of the ninth to steal a series opening win.
Braydon Dolbashian,
Brooks Craigue, and
Dawson Bryce each went yard in the ninth inning of the comeback victory.
Score: Merrimack 7, LIU 5
Records: Merrimack (23-23, 15-10), LIU (23-19, 18-7)
Rapid Recap
If you weren't there you just might not believe it. The early stages of this game we're a pitching duel with
Andrew Heffernan throwing a spotless three innings before finally letting up a few runs in the fourth. Before that however it was
Cavan Brady smashing his first homer of the year to get the Warriors on the board in the third. After the solo shot it would be tough sledding for the Merrimack bats as they did nothing for the next four innings. LIU held the 3-1 lead late and it wouldn't be until the 8th inning when a infield single drove in a Warrior baserunner off the bat of
Christian Scanlon. Down 3-2, Merrimack had a chance going into the ninth. The Sharks would hit a two run home run to make it a challenging comeback with the bottom half of the order due up for the Warriors. A new pitcher entered for LIU and
Braydon Dolbashian saw the ball well as he crushed a homerun into left field, his second in as many games, to ignite the offense. After an
Alex Haba double, everything looked great with no outs. Back to back flyouts put a damper on it as
Brooks Craigue, a freshman who was pinch hitting, came to the plate. Craigue battled at the dish and was able to torch a ball over the left field fence and tie it up at five. It would be the first homerun of Craigue's career and what a spot it was for it.
Christian Gemelli came up next and earned himself a hard fought walk.
Dawson Bryce would step into the batter's box and you could feel something special in the air. Bryce took the baseball for a ride going deep into right center field to walk it off. This marks the second straight weekend series with a walkoff for the Warriors as they opened up last weekend versus FDU with a walkoff homerun as well.
Notes and Numbers
On Deck
Merrimack will have two more games versus LIU both starting at 1:00 PM.
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