Homers, Pitching Key Skyhawk Win
Springfield, Mass. - Powered by home runs from Scott Hackett (Bangor, Maine), Javier Guzman (San Juan, P.R.) and Shane Franz (Cazenovia, N.Y.), Stonehill took an 8-4 decision over host American International on Wednesday afternoon at AIC Park. With the win, the Skyhawks improved to 21-18 on the year and 12-10 in the Northeast-10, while the Yellow Jackets dropped to 9-24 overall and 7-15 in conference play.
Stonehill took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when sophomore Mitch Davis (Bow, N.H.) scored on a sacrifice fly from senior Dave Fradette (Goffstown, N.H.) and then made it a 2-0 game in the third on another Fradette sac fly that scored Guzman. The Skyhawks moved the lead to 4-0 after Hackett's two-run blast in the fourth.
After the Yellow Jackets got a single run in the fifth, Stonehill responded in the sixth with a pair of runs on an RBI single from Nate Weber (Hanson, Mass.) and an RBI double from freshman Angelo Bruno (Norwalk, Conn.).
The final two Skyhawk runs came in the seventh when both Guzman and Franz connected on their first homers of the season.
With the score 8-1, the Yellow Jackets got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Dan Bassani had a sacrifice fly and then added two runs in the ninth on David Dest's line-drive shot over the right field fence.
Senior Mat Lindenmayer (Penfield, N.Y.) went the distance on the hill for the Skyhawks, scattering 11 hits and recording four strikeouts over nine innings. Terry Loh took the loss for AIC after allowing six runs on 10 hits through 5.2 innings.
Franz and Guzman each went 2 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored for Stonehill and Bruno went 2 for 4 with two RBIs.
Stonehill returns to the diamond on Saturday when they travel to Southern New Hampshire for a doubleheader showdown with the Penmen.