Fradette Plates Lone Run With Sixth Inning Single, Sittig Fans 12 Over 10 Innings As Baseball Drops Tough 2-1 11-Inning Northeast-10 Decision At Merrimack

April 28, 2006

STONEHILL BASEBALL

Friday, April 28, 2006

Warrior Field, North Andover, Mass.

FINAL: MERRIMACK 2, STONEHILL 1 (11 INNINGS)

123 456 789 10 11 R H E

Stonehill (23-13, 17-5 Northeast-10) 000 001 000 0 0 - 1 7 4

Merrimack (15-22, 11-15 NE-10) 100 000 000 0 1 - 2 6 1

BATTERIES

STO: Billy Sittig, Chris Herrmann (11) and Matt Vaughn

MER: Josh Sohn, Mike Coppinger (9) and Rick Sotiropoulos

WP: Coppinger (5-3) LP: Herrmann (2-2)

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.-- Junior Rick Sotiropoulos (Ipswich, Mass.) doubled and scored on an error with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift Merrimack to a 2-1 Northeast-10 Conference baseball victory over Stonehill Friday afternoon at Warrior Field.

Sotiropoulos plated the winning tally for the host Warriors (15-22, 11-15 Northeast-10) after senior Jeff Ghiloni's (South Portland, Maine) single was mishandled in the outfield that gave Merrimack a sweep of the two-game season series between the teams. Both of the Warrior runs on the day were unearned, as the hosts took a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat when freshman Tim Corcoran (Beverly, Mass.) singled, stole second and later scored on a throwing error. The visiting Skyhawks (23-13, 17-5 Northeast-10) evened matters in the sixth when senior Sean Lawrence (New Rochelle, N.Y.) doubled and scored on an RBI single by sophomore David Fradette (Goffstown, N.H.), setting up Sotiropoulos's extra inning heroics for Merrimack.

Corcoran collected two of the Warriors' six hits on the afternoon, as sophomore Mike Coppinger (Medway, Mass.) picked up his fifth win on the mound for Merrimack, tossing three scoreless with four strikeouts in relief of sophomore Josh Sohn (West Simsbury, Conn.), who allowed five hits and a run over eight innings with four strikeouts. Lawrence and Fradette each had two hits as part of a seven-hit attack for Stonehill, as junior Chris Herrmann (Chelmsford, Mass.) allowed the unearned run in the 11th inning to suffer the setback for the Skyhawks in relief of senior All-America Billy Sittig (West Roxbury, Mass.), who allowed four hits and an unearned run over 10 innings while fanning 12 to run his school record career strikeout mark to 269.

Stonehill hosts Southern New Hampshire in a Northeast-10 doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Gorman Field beginning at Noon, while Merrimack travels to Waltham, Mass. on Monday afternoon to take on Bentley in a league outing at 3:30 p.m.