The Husson Eagles baseball and softball teams were both just a win away on Friday afternoon from advancing to the North Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship Round on Saturday. Both teams played opponents out of the NAC West Division as baseball was on the road taking on host SUNY Cobleskill, while softball hosted SUNY Poly on the Husson campus in Bangor.
At Fighting Tiger Field in Cobleskill, New York- The Husson baseball team showed their offensive prowess in a big time way, in crushing the hosts from SUNY Cobleskill 20-2 to advance to the North Atlantic Conference Championship Round. The Eagles started quickly, scoring two in the top of the first inning. Hunter Curtis singled in a run, and Akira Warren scored on a wild pitch. They scored five more in the second on a Warren RBI single, and a grandslam by Jackson Curtis that made it 7-0. They finished up a huge day at the plate by tallying six more times in the sixth inning on a Warren RBI double, a Jackson Curtis RBI sacrifice fly, an RBI groundout by Cam Rendell, a two-run double by Tanner Evans, and a wild pitch that scored Evans. Warren had five hits, six RBI, and scored four runs. Hunter Curtis had four hits, while Evans and Colin Marshall had two each. Jackson Curtis drove in five runs, and Evans along with Matt Holmes also added two RBI a piece. Connor Abood (5-2) picked up the pitching win going the first 5.0 innings allowing no runs on two hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Andrew Jarkow (1-5) was tagged with the loss for the West Division Champion SUNY Cobleskill, as he was touched up for six runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. Jesus Sarda had two hits, and Chris Champlin and Korin Laurilla had one RBI each. The Fighting Tigers are now 17-22. Husson is 22-10, and will need to be beaten twice on Saturday in a rematch with SUNY Cobleskill, as the Fighting Tigers won their elimination game over Eastern Nazarene College. The first game is scheduled for 12 p.m., with a second if necessary contest if SUNY wins the first game 30 minutes after. The Eagles are looking for their fourth straight NAC Title.
At O’Keefe Field in Bangor- Kenzie Dore continued her hot hitting, as Husson softball rolled over SUNY Poly 12-1 in five innings (mercy rule) to advance to the North Atlantic Conference Championship Round. After Bulla McCabe hit a single to leftfield to score Jess Pomerleau in the bottom of the first inning and Tori Exel walked, Dore took one over the fence in left center for a three-run homer for an early 4-0 lead. She did it again in the third with a solo homerun. The Eagles put it away in the bottom of the fourth scoring seven times. They got three of those runs on three errors by the Wildcats. Julia Gregiore also had a two-run single, Josie Cornell an RBI single, and Kiara McLeod an RBI triple. McCabe, Dore, and Gregiore had two hits each. Dore drove in four, and Gregiore had two RBI. Ana Lang (17-2) went the entire 5.0 innings in the circle allowing one run on four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Trinity Critelli (15-9) suffered the pitching loss for West Division Champion SUNY Poly giving up 12 runs on nine hits with five walks and three strikeouts in 4.0 innings. Alivia Turk had an RBI double for the 25-9 Wildcats. Husson is now 34-4 and on a 29-game win streak. The 34 wins is a new program record. They’ll need to beaten twice on Saturday in the championship round. The game time is 1 p.m. in a rematch with the SUNY Poly Wildcats, who won their elimination game over Thomas College. A game two (if SUNY wins the first game) is scheduled for 3 p.m. The Eagles are looking for their sixth straight NAC Title. Dore in the tournament so far (10 innings played) is 5-6 at the plate with four homeruns, a triple, a walk, four runs scored, and 12 RBI.
Recaps/photos/videos by Chris Lessner
Husson third baseman Kenzie Dore hit two more homeruns on Friday afternoon, leading the Eagles softball team to the North Atlantic Conference Championship Round with a 12-1 win over SUNY Poly at O’Keefe Field in Bangor. Dore has hit four homers and drove in 11 runs in 10 innings in the NAC Tournament.
