BANGOR- After a split on Sunday with Lesley University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) to open North Atlantic Conference play, the Husson University baseball team finished off their four game set on Monday afternoon with a doubleheader at the Winkin Complex. The Eagles were able to take both games, and take three of four in the series with the Lynx.
Game 1- Jackson Curtis (Ellsworth High School) provided some big time heroics with a walkoff grandslam in the bottom of the seventh inning lifting Husson to an 8-7 win. The Eagles jumped on the scoreboard first on RBI hits by Colin Marshall and Akira Warren in the third inning for a 2-0 lead. Lesley University took advance of some Eagles miscues to take their first lead of the afternoon with four runs in the fifth inning. The hosts fought back in the bottom half of the frame on a Marshall RBI sacrifice fly, and an RBI double from Warren to tie it up 4-4.
The Lynx took advantage of three walks, a hit batter, and an error in the sixth to take a 7-4 advantage without the benefit of a hit. Ryan Bousquet led the rally in the last at bat for Husson with a pinch hit walk. After Marshall struckout swinging, Keegan Cyr and Warren both walked to load the bases forcing Lesley to make another pitching change. Evan Swift took to the mound and fell behind Curtis with a 3-1 count, before Curtis belted the next offering for a no-doubt walkoff grandslam that cleared the leftfield fence by at least 10 feet. Warren and Matt Holmes each had two hits for the Eagles, while Ryan Penney (1-0) earned the win in relief on the hill. Cam Rendell had started and went 4.2 innings allowed one run (none earned) on two hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Owen Kalagher led the Lynx with two hits, and Swift (1-1) suffered the pitching loss.
Game 2- Lesley University scored times in the top of the first inning, but Husson scored five unanswered to compete the sweep with a 5-3 win. Kalagher hit a two-run triple, and Caden Shott had an infield RBI single in the first at bat for the Lynx to knock out Eagles starter Ben Phillips after just 2/3 of an inning. Rendell got the hosts on the board with an RBI single in the third, before an RBI sacrifice fly by Marshall in the fourth cut the deficit to 3-2. In the bottom of the fifth inning Husson made two quick outs, but then Rendell singled to right and Holmes (Bangor High) provided the game winner with a two-run homerun to right center. Marshall provided some insurance with an RBI single in the sixth to end the scoring. Rendell led the way with three hits, and Allen Wheaton (1-0) won in relief. Wheaton went 4.1 innings allowing no runs on two hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Kalagher had two hits in the loss for Lesley University, and Jacob Nemergut (0-4) suffered the pitching defeat giving up four earned runs on five hits with three walks and six strikeouts in 5.0 innings. The Lynx fall to 9-10 overall and 1-3 in conference play.
Husson is now 6-7 and 3-1 in the NAC. The Eagles will play a single non-conference game in Standish against St. Joseph’s College on Thursday, before getting back into conference action with a four game series at Vermont State University-Lyndon with doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Recaps/photos/video by Chris Lessner
