MANSFIELD Conn.- Powerful Southern Maine and sophomore Mike Eaton took a while to wake out of their slumber, but when they did, the Huskies walked off winners in the opening round on the New England Regional.
After going hitless early on and making a key error in the field, Eaton lined a one out single in the bottom of the tenth to send Southern Maine to a 5-4 win against the Husson Eagles.
“I wasn’t really looking for a ball to get up in the air and luckily he threw a ball down that I was able to get through,” Eaton said.
The win also gave Eaton the win, moving him to 5-0 on the mound. The righthander began the game in right field before coming in to pitch a scoreless two and two-thirds innings to give the Huskies a chance to win.
Southern Maine scored in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead.
In the first, junior Josh Mackey drew a two out walk and senior and Little East Player of the Year Anthony D’Alfonso singled to center, sending Mackey to third. Senior Ryan Pike followed with an RBI single up the middle.
In the third, D’Alfonso knocked home Mackey with a single down the left field line.
The Eagles pushed a run across the plate thanks to some sloppy Husky fielding
Jeff Miller popped a pitch up behind the backstop, but sophomore Jordan Berthiaume dropped it to give the senior new life.
Miller then lofted a fly ball to right that popped out of the glove of Eaton allowing sophomore first baseman Chris Maguire to scor.
But Schmidt dispatched junior designated hitter Dennis Graham on three pitches to wiggle out of the inning.
Husson sophomore Ryan Arsenault (6-4) held Southern Maine, who entered the night with 473 runs, tops in Division III, to just four runs over his six and two-thirds innings of work.
Southern Maine scored in the sixth to make it 3-1 but Husson took advantage of another Husky error to slice to lead to to 3-2 in the seventh.
But D’Alfonso laced his ninth home run of the season in front the scoreboard in left center leading off the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-2. It was his second RBI of the game and 76th of the season.
The Eagles pushed across two runs in the eighth to tie the game at four.
Southern Maine righthander Mark Schmidt hurled six innings, allowing just two unearned runs in his four start of the year and first since March due to an injury.
“I felt great,” Schmidt said. “I haven’t thrown 100 pitches a long time, able to get ahead with my fastball early in the count so I was able to throw mainly fastballs. That was a big part of it so I didn’t have to mix up speeds, I was able to attack with my fastball.”
Southern Maine (36-7) will take on Trinity today at 7:45 p.m. while Husson will face Westfield State at 1:15 p.m.
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