BANGOR, Maine – The Husson University baseball team put the finishing touches on a season-sweep of the University of Maine-Presque Isle on Saturday afternoon, winning game one of the doubleheader 8-0, before finishing off the day with an 8-4 victory at the Dr. John W. Winkin Sports Complex in North Atlantic Conference play.
GAME ONE: Husson 8, UMPI 0
Husson (11-9, 5-0 NAC) sprayed eight runs across the first five innings of play and got six dominant innings from senior Matt Wallingford to earn an 8-0 win in game one of Saturday's double-dip.
Junior Hunter Curtis continued his hot weekend at the plate to get the scoring started in the opening inning, as he singled home senior Tanner Evans, while Evans doubled the Husson lead one inning later on an RBI-double to left-center field to plate junior Colin Marshall.
The Eagles added three runs onto their lead in the bottom-half of the third inning thanks to a two-RBI single from Marshall to score sophomore Henry Lausier and H. Curtis, while graduate student Akira Warren drove in Marshall on an extra-base hit to left-center field, as it was 5-0 Eagles after three innings.
Small-ball at the plate got Husson one run each in the fourth and fifth innings from sacrifice flies, as H. Curtis and senior Ryne Rametta each added RBIs onto their totals, in addition to runs onto the scoreboard for the Eagles.
Warren closed out the scoring in the fifth inning with an RBI-single up the middle to plate Marshall and bring game one to its final score of 8-0.
Marshall produced a strong game at the plate out of the eight-hole, as he went 3-3 at the plate with two RBIs, three runs scored and four stolen bases, which ties the single-game record for Husson baseball.
Warren, sophomore Matt Holmes and H. Curtis each added two hits, while Warren and H. Curtis drove in two runs each.
Wallingford provided an absolute gem of a pitching performance on the hill for the Eagles, allowing just one base runner to UMPI (4-9, 1-6 NAC) on a softly hit single up the middle, while allowing no runs and striking out 10 of the 19 batters he faced.
Junior Tanner Audyatis closed out the final inning with a perfect 1-2-3 frame.
GAME TWO: Husson 8, UMPI 4
A two-RBI double from senior Justin Salvatore in the bottom of the fifth inning broke a 4-4 tie and allowed Husson (12-9, 6-0 NAC) to complete a perfect weekend over the Owls (4-10, 1-7 NAC) by a final of 8-4.
Contradictory to the first three games of the series, it was UMPI who drew first-blood, as an RBI-single to center field and an RBI-groundout gave the Owls their first lead of the weekend.
That lead was short-lived however, as Husson doubled up UMPI in its first turn at the plate in game two, as graduate student Jackson Curtis inched closer to the top-spot on the all-time RBI leaderboard with a run-producing groundout to get the Eagles on the board.
Holmes knotted the game up at two with an RBI-triple to right-center field to drive in Evans, while an RBI-double from H. Curtis gave the Eagles the lead and an RBI-single from sophomore Ryan Bousquet provided Husson a 4-2 edge after one complete inning.
Pitching took over the game for the next three innings, as both teams were still able to put runners on base, but no runs amounted and the game remained 4-2 in favor of the Eagles headed into the fifth inning.
The Owls managed to break-through again on senior Connor Abood with another two-run inning to tie the game back up at four, as back-to-back RBI-singles knocked the veteran right-hander out of the contest, but junior Allen Wheaton avoided further damage for the Eagles.
It didn't take long for Husson to regain control of its lead, as Salvatore came up big with his first two RBIs of the year on his double down the left-field line to give Husson a 6-4 lead.
The Eagles tacked two more runs onto their lead in the sixth inning, as an RBI-single with the infield in from Evans plated Warren, while Evans took advantage of a throwing error from the UMPI catcher later on in the inning to produce the eighth and final run of the contest for Husson.
Holmes and Warren contributed two hits each in the finale, while Salvatore's two RBIs were a team-high and Warren followed Marshall's lead from game one, as he too tied the single-game mark for stolen bases with four swipes.
As a team Husson tied the second-best stolen base total in a single-game in program history, as it tallied 12 stolen bags for the second time ever with the other instance also coming against the Owls back in 2022.
Abood drew his fifth start of the season and went 4.2 innings and surrendered four earned runs on eight hits, while adding four strikeouts, before Wheaton allowed just one walk in his 2.1 innings of relief and sent three batters down on strikes in his second victory of the year.
The Eagles return to non-conference action on Monday with a trip to Bowdoin College for a nine-inning game at 6 p.m. against the Polar Bears, who received votes in this past week's D3baseball.com poll.
