Sophomore Rich Laganiere, pitching for the first time in 13 days, scattered four hits in seven innings as Maine defeated Stony Brook, 9-3, in an elimination game of the America East Baseball Championship at Mahaney Diamond. The Black Bears, 38-15, will play Northeastern, which advanced to the winner's bracket with a 10-5 win over Stony Brook earlier today, on Saturday at 12 noon to decide the America East Championship. Maine needs two wins over the Huskies for its first conference title since 1993. Northeastern needs a win for its first crown since 1997.
Laganiere (7-4), who hadn't pitched since a 3-1 loss to Stony Brook on May 11 when he left after 3.1 innings because of discomfort in his pitching arm, allowed three runs, striking out six and walking six before being relieved by Scott Robinson, who pitched two perfect innings.
The Black Bears erased a 2-1 deficit in the fourth inning when Mike Ross and Jesse Carlton each delivered RBI singles. Maine increased the lead to 5-2 in the fifth when Mike Livulpi led off with a double. Aaron Young followed with an infield single and Livulpi scored when the ball was mishandled by the first baseman. Alain Picard doubled to chase Stony Brook starter and loser Kevin Willi (3-7), who allowed eight hits and five runs in 4.1 innings. Joe Drapeau greeted Seawolf reliever Dave Mischo with a sacrifice fly to plate Young.
Maine jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Brett Ouellette doubled to left center with one out and Picard followed with an RBI single up the middle.
Stony Brook, 27-24, scored twice in the second inning when Rob Sandora singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a balk by Laganiere. Lee Lipshutz singled to put runners on first and second before the Seawolves executed a double steal. Ed Kull's sacrifice fly to right scored Sandora and Andrew Larsen then delivered a single to score Lipshutz.
Maine scored four times in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Picard, Aaron Izaryk and Ross and an error by the left fielder which allowed Drapeau to score on the single by Ross.
Stony Brook chased Laganiere in the eighth when Dwayne Whitaker led off with a walk and scored on a double by Matt Devins. Robinson relieved Laganiere and got Sandora to foul out, Lipshutz to ground out and Kull to foul out to end any rally.
The win for the top-seeded Black Bears avenged a 16-4 loss to the fourth-seeded Seawolves Thursday night in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament.
In the day's second game, junior Luke Carlin was 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBI as Northeastern defeated Stony Brook, 10-5, to advance to the America East Baseball Championship game at Mahaney Diamond. The third-seeded Huskies are 29-20 overall
Carlin had an RBI single in the fifth inning as the Huskies scored five times to break a 2-2 tie. Stony Brook starter and loser Anthony Stutz (6-4) hit Colin Gaynor and Mike Steinberg, the eighth and ninth hitters, to start the inning. Brad Czarnowski's sacrifice moved the runners to second and third. Omar Pena then delivered a single to right field to score Gaynor with Pena moving to second on the throw to the plate. A wild pitch scored Steinberg and Carlin followed with a run-scoring single to left field. Miguel Paquette's single to right field put runners on the corners and Jeff Heriot doubled to right field to score Carlin. Matt Blumberg relieved Stutz, who allowed seven runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings, and Erik Hagstrom grounded out to score Paquette.
The fourth-seeded Seawolves, who had advanced to the winner's bracket with a 16-4 win over top seed Maine Thursday night, scored first when Lee Lipshutz singled to score Dwayne Whitaker, who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch in the top of the first inning.
The Huskies tied it in the bottom of the first when Carlin hit a solo home run to left field with two outs. Northeastern took a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Steinberg.
Stony Brook evened it in the fourth inning when Pena's error allowed Andrew Zielinski, who had walked, to score.
The Seawolves cut the lead to 7-3 in the seventh inning on an RBI double by Rob Sandora. But Northeastern answered with one in the bottom of the seventh when Carlin, who had doubled and advanced to third on a flyout, scored on a wild pitch. The Huskies added two more runs in the eighth on an RBI double by Pena and an RBI single by Carlin.
Northeastern right-hander Jordan Thomson (6-4) was cruising along until the ninth inning when Whitaker and Matt Devins singled with one out. Sandora then walked to chase Thomson, who allowed 10 hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 8.1 innings. Lipshutz greeted reliever Justin Hedrick with a single to right field to score Whitaker and Devins. But Hedrick got Ed Kull to pop-up to second and Zielinski to ground to short to end the game.
In the first game of the day Friday, sophomore Mike MacDonald struck out 10 in a complete-game win as Maine defeated Vermont, 8-2, in a loser's bracket game at the America East Baseball Championship at Mahaney Diamond.
MacDonald (7-2), the America East Pitcher of the Year, scattered nine hits and did not walk a batter while allowing two earned runs.
Top-seeded Maine, which dropped to the loser's bracket following a 16-4 loss to No. 4 Stony Brook last night, went to work in the top off the first inning when Mike Ross walked with the bases loaded for a 1-0 lead.
The Black Bears added two runs in the second inning off Vermont starter and loser Andy Kumming (6-2) who allowed eight hits and six runs, with all but one unearned. Jesse Carlton led off the inning with a single to left field and advanced to second when Mike Ferriggi reached on an error, one of six by the Catamounts. Following a strikeout, Brett Ouellette singled to right to score Carlton and Ferriggi moved to third when the ball was mishandled in right for an error. Alain Picard then delivered Ferriggi with a groundout to short.
Maine increased the lead to 6-0 in the fifth inning on a two-out, two-run homer by Mike Ross after Aaron Izaryk had reached on a fielder's choice following an error. Simon Williams followed Ross with a single up the middle and advanced to third on a single by Carlton. Ferriggi then singled up the middle to plate Williams.
The Black Bears added two runs in the sixth on three-straight one-out doubles by Picard, Joe Drapeau and Izaryk.
Vermont, 27-22, finally solved MacDonald in the seventh inning when Jason Carey drove home Nick Roberts and Steve Mapes with a double to right center.