Junior Alex McCormick collected his third win of the season
with eight strong innings of work this afternoon.
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Stonehill Silences UMass
Lowell, 6-1
McCormick holds River Hawks
to four hits, four-run fourth lifts Skyhawks to win
EASTON, Mass. (April 14,
2010) – Stonehill College, ranked seventh in this
week's NCAA Division II East Regional rankings, picked up its
fourth-straight win with a 6-1 victory over sixth-ranked University
of Massachusetts Lowell in a key Northeast-10 Conference baseball
matchup at Lou Gorman Field this afternoon.
Junior righthander Alex
McCormick (Weymouth, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) settled down
after a shaky first inning and turned in eight strong innings to
earn the win (3-2) on the mound for Stonehill. He allowed the one
earned run while scattering four hits with four strikeouts and a
walk. Senior righthander Joe SantaBarbara (Danvers,
Mass./Masconomet) closed the game out with a scoreless
ninth,
Junior Brenden Shepard
(Boxford, Mass./Masconomet) paced the offense for
Stonehill as he hit 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. Senior
Shane Franz (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) was
2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored, while classmate
Ryan Healey (Lynn, Mass./Lynn English) batted
2-for-3 with a run scored. Sophomore Michael White (Lisbon,
N.H./Lisbon Regional) finished 2-for-4 with a run scored,
while junior Angelo Bruno (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk)
chipped in with his Conference-leading eighth home run of the
season.
Senior Shane Franz had two hits, scored two runs and added
an RBI. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr)
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Sophomore Cam Kneeland
(Rowley, Mass./Triton Regional) paced the UMass Lowell
offense, which was held to just five hits, going 1-for-4 with an
RBI. Senior Jared Notargiacomo (Newburyport,
Mass./Newburyport) finished 1-for-2 with a double, while
sophomore Matt Jacobs (Hudson, Mass./Hudson) hit
1-for-4 with a stolen base and run scored.
Junior righthander Ted
Haley (Cranston, R.I./Cranston West) took the loss (1-3),
allowing five earned runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and
three walks in five-plus innings.
UMass Lowell struck first with its
lone run in the top of the first. Jacobs reached on a chopped
single to third, stole second, and then scored on a one-out single
up the middle by Kneeland. McCormick worked out of another jam in
the second, but settled in from there, retiring ten of 11 batters
from the second through fifth innings.
Stonehill scored all the runs it
would need with its four-run fourth. Bruno and Healey led off with
walks and Franz delivered a one-out RBI single to left that knotted
the score. White loaded the bases with a shallow single through the
left side before Shepard drilled a two-run double to right center.
Senior Michael Von Stein (Trumbull,
Conn./Trumbull) drove in the fourth run on a ground out.
Stonehill added a run in the sixth
when Franz led off with a single and later scored on a sacrifice
fly to center by senior Mitch Davis (Bow,
N.H./Bow). Bruno capped the scoring when he led off the
seventh with his eighth homer of the season.
Stonehill (15-11, 10-4 NE-10) is
back in action on Saturday when it opens a huge four-game weekend
with a Northeast-10 doubleheader at No. 23-ranked and first-place
Southern Connecticut State University at noon. The Skyhawks return
home on Sunday for a pair of makeup games with
24th-ranked Adelphi University at Gorman Field starting
at 1 p.m. UMass Lowell (19-17, 7-10 NE-10) visits Merrimack College
tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
