Senior Shane Franz had Stonehill's lone hit with a single up the middle in the fifth. |
NCAA II TOURNAMENT EAST
REGIONAL
#2 Franklin Pierce Quiets #4 Stonehill, 6-0
Maloney fires one-hit shutout to snap Skyhawks 12-game win streak
WEST HAVEN, Conn. (May 14, 2010) – Junior lefthander Brian Maloney (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) fired a one-hitter to lead second-seeded Franklin Pierce University to a 6-0 victory over fourth-seeded Stonehill College on day two of the 2010 NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament East Regional, hosted by Southern Connecticut State University, at Yale Field tonight.
Franklin Pierce (38-14-1, 19-6-1 NE-10) advances to face top-seeded and host Southern Connecticut State (37-11-1, 21-5 NE-10) in a winner's bracket semifinal matchup tomorrow at 11 a.m. The winner of that game will advance to Sunday's championship round. Southern eliminated third-seeded University of New Haven, 4-1, in today's second game.
Stonehill (30-17, 17-9 NE-10) will now face fifth-seeded LIU-C.W. Post (32-16-1, 22-8 ECC) in an elimination game tomorrow at 3 p.m. The winner of that game will face the loser of the Franklin Pierce/Southern Connecticut opener tomorrow at 7 p.m. C.W. Post remained alive with a 4-1 triumph over Dominican College in today's opening elimination contest.
Maloney (4-4) scattered just the one hit with three walks over the nine shutout innings, striking out nine. He cruised through the first four innings, facing just one over the minimum, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth before Stonehill senior Shane Franz (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) followed up a leadoff walk by classmate Matt Skane (Mashpee, Mass./Mashpee) with a sharp single up the middle. Stonehill would load the bases when sophomore Michael White (Lisbon, N.H./Lisbon Regional) reached on an error during a sacrifice bunt attempt, but Maloney rebounded to retire the next three batters in order with a pair of strikeouts and a pop fly that ended the Skyhawks only true scoring chance of the night, trailing 1-0 at the time.
Junior Michael Munoz (Bronx, N.Y./Lehman) paced the Franklin Pierce offense as he hit 2-for-5 with a stolen base, run scored and two RBI. Sophomore Mike Dowd (Bridgewater, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, while sophomore Isaac Wenrich (Westlawn, Pa./Wilson) went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Senior Phil Hendricks (Pittsfield, Mass./Maine Central Institute) chipped in by going 1-for-4 with two RBI.
Junior righthander Alex McCormick (Weymouth, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) took the loss (6-4) for Stonehill, surrendering six earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and three walks over 6.2 innings. Franz had Stonehill's lone hit and finished 1-for-3 on the night.
Franklin Pierce opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first as Dowd laced a one-out double to left center, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on an infield single by Munoz. The Ravens broke the game open with a five-run seventh, capped by a bases-clearing three-run double to left center by Hendricks. Munoz contributed an RBI single and the Ravens also got a run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
Maloney did the rest, retiring the last nine Stonehill batters he faced and 12 of the last 13 overall after his troublesome fifth.
