EASTON, Mass. – The American International College baseball team split a Northeast-10 doubleheader at Stonehill College Monday afternoon, winning game-two 10-6 after falling in game-one 11-7. The Yellow Jackets are now 10-13-1 overall and 4-8-1 in the Northeast-10, while the Skyhawks are now 21-10 overall and 9-4 in conference play.
AIC staked itself to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first of its game-two win as senior left fielder
Dennis Duffy (Warwick, R.I.) drove in sophomore second baseman
Cam MacDonald (Weymouth, Mass.) with a single to center and later scored on an infield single from senior first baseman
Julian Concepcion (Woodstock, Valley, Conn.), and junior shortstop
Chris Amate (Hanover, Mass.) scored on a sac-fly from freshman third baseman
Lucas Vallas (East Northport, N.Y.).
The Yellow Jackets led 4-1 heading into the top of the fourth before Amate drove in MacDonald with a double down the left field line and later scored behind Duffy on Concepcion's single up the middle that gave AIC a 7-1 lead.
Stonehill responded with a three-run fifth to climb back within three as junior center fielder James DeAlto (Briarcliff Mmanor, N.Y.) scored on senior first baseman Michael White's (Lisbon, N.H.) ground out and sophomore right fielder Billy Karalis (Pawtucket, R.I.) drove in sophomore second baseman Dan Fratus (Plymouth, Mass.) and junior shortstop Michael Zeiner (Simsbury, Conn.) with a double to left center to make it 7-4 in favor of AIC.
Vallas then drove in Concepcion with a center field double in the sixth and back-to-back RBI-singles from Amate and senior right fielder
Kyle McNiff (Westford, Mass.) in the seventh extended the Yellow Jacket's lead back to six at 10-4. Fratus drove in a pair of runs as White and Zeiner scored on his triple to left center, but that was all the offense the Skyhawks could muster the rest of the way.
Freshman
Spencer Prusack (Woodsburgh, N.Y.) earned the win on the mound, the first of his collegiate career, after allowing four runs on five hits and four walks with five strikeouts in five innings of work. Sophomore
Chris Goonan (Chicopee, Mass.) and senior
Tim Bailey (Chicopee, Mass.) tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, to seal the win. Senior Bryan Galligan (Brockton, Mass.) fell to 3-2 after allowing five runs on five hits and four walks in three innings.
AIC took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first in game-one as sophomore designated hitter
Dave Clark (West Springfield, Mass.) drove the first pitch he saw over the right field fence before Amate hit a triple to left center and came around to score on McNiff's ground out. That lead grew to 4-0 in the second as sophomore center fielder Dave Asselin (Chicopee, Mass.) drove in sophomore catcher
Dan Fenton (Agawam, Mass.) from second with a single to center and then scored on an error.
Stonehill got two runs back in the bottom of the second before exploding for seven runs in the third, scoring two runs on sophomore catcher Colin Shepard's (Boxford, Mass.) bases-loaded single through the right side and Fratus' triple to left center, to take a 10-4 lead.
Amate got AIC back in the game with a three-run bomb in the top of the fourth to pull the Yellow Jackets within three, 10-7, but AIC would strand eight base runners in the final five innings and left the bases loaded in the ninth as the Skyhawks held on for the win.
White earned the decision to improve to 2-2 despite allowing seven runs on seven hits in five innings of work, while freshman Jim Duff (Garden City, N.Y.) earned his second save of the year after scattering five hits over the final four innings. Sophomore
Daniel Guerrero (Elizabeth, N.J.) fell to 0-3 after giving up seven runs on five hits and seven walks in two and one-third innings.
The Yellow Jackets will next travel to Assumption College Wednesday for a 3:30 p.m. Northeast-10 Southwest Division game.
