Sittig Fires One-Hitter And Fans Nine Over Eight Innings, Audette Plates Pair Of Runs As Baseball Advances In Northeast-10 Championships With 5-0 First Round Playoff Victory Over Saint Anselm

May 11, 2005

STONEHILL BASEBALL

First Round – 2005 Northeast-10 Conference Championships

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Campanelli Stadium, Brockton, Mass.

FINAL: STONEHILL 5, SAINT ANSELM 0

123 456 789 R H E

Saint Anselm (19-21) 000 000 000 - 0 3 1

Stonehill (25-18) 104 000 00x - 5 12 0

BATTERIES

STA: Ryan Williams and Anthony Modoono

STO: Billy Sittig, Mat Lindenmayer (9) and Matt Vaughn

WP: Sittig (9-1) LP: Williams (3-4)

BROCKTON, Mass.-- Junior Billy Sittig (West Roxbury, Mass.) allowed one hit and struck out nine over eight innings of work to pick up his ninth win of the season as third-seeded Stonehill posted a 5-0 victory over sixth-seeded Saint Anselm in first round action of the 2005 Northeast-10 Conference Baseball Championships Wednesday afternoon at Campanelli Stadium.

The host Chieftains (25-18) advance from the single elimination first round format to the double elimination portion of the tournament to face second-seeded Franklin Pierce on Friday afternoon at UMass Lowell’s LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Mass. beginning at 4:00 p.m. Stonehill has now advanced to the double elimination “final four” format in seven of the last eight seasons.

The Chieftains got the only run they would prove to need in the bottom of the first when junior Coley Lyons (West Roxbury, Mass.) stole home on a double steal with senior Tim Flynn (Clifton Park, N.Y.) that came with two outs, and Stonehill broke things open in the third with four more tallies. Lyons singled, advanced to third on a Flynn single and scored on a throwing error to extend the hosts’ lead to 2-0, and an RBI double by junior T.J. Piscatelli (Norfolk, Mass.) plated Flynn for a 3-0 Chieftain lead. Senior Craig Audette (Raynham, Mass.) capped the Stonehill scoring with a two-out, two-run single, and Sittig took care of the rest on the mound, allowing only a lead-off single by Saint Anselm sophomore Tim Keefe (Cambridge, Mass.) in the top of the fifth in posting his ninth victory in 10 decisions this spring.

Audette and Flynn each collected three hits in the win for Stonehill, while Lyons rapped out a pair of hits as part of a 12-hit Chieftain attack on the afternoon. Sophomore Ryan Williams (Lynnfield, Mass.) went the distance on the mound for the visiting Hawks (19-21), fanning six along the way in falling to 3-4 on the season.

Stonehill dropped both of its regular season meetings with Franklin Pierce in 2005, as the Chieftains and Ravens will meet in the Northeast-10 tournament for the first time in two years on Friday afternoon.