BOX
SCORE
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine – Junior Joe Pace allowed just one
run and five hits over seven innings as junior Reid Auger and
sophomore Adam Marquit each drove in a pair of runs to lead the
Bowdoin College baseball team to a 7-4 win over the
nationally-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies in a
non-conference game Tuesday afternoon at Wainwright Field in South
Portland, Maine.
With the win, the Polar Bears provided 11-year veteran head coach
Mike Connolly with his 189th career victory, tying former Bowdoin
coach Harvey Shapiro for the most wins by a Bowdoin baseball coach
in the program's 143 year history. The win also snapped a
three-game losing skid for the Polar Bears who improve to 11-11
overall. The loss is the second straight for the Huskies, ranked
23rd in the most recent American Baseball Coaches
Association/Collegiate Baseball Poll (March 24, 2009), who fall to
12-3.
The Polar Bears jumped ahead of USM with a three-run second inning
paced by a two-run double from Auger and a run-scoring double from
freshman 2B Jordan Edgett. Edgett finished the game with three
hits.
Pace held the Huskies potent offense scoreless through the first
three innings. Pace retired seven consecutive batters during the
stretch while limiting the Huskies to just three hits. After the
Polar Bears increased their lead to 4-0 in the fourth on an RBI
single from Marquit, the Huskies got on the board in the home half
of the fourth inning when senior OF Anthony D'Alfonso reached
safely on his team-leading seventh double of the season and then
came around to score after Pace yielded a walk and misfired on a
pair of wild pitches.
Bowdoin led USM 7-1 through seven and a half innings as Pace held
the Huskies scoreless giving up two hits and a walk in the fifth,
sixth and seventh innings combined. The Huskies rallied in the
bottom of the eighth when D'Alfonso tagged Bowdoin relief
pitcher Ben Higgins for a three-run home run to right field. Junior
P Eric Chenelle quickly relieved Higgins after
D'Alfonso's second home run of the season and retired
the side.
The three runs were the final of the game for the Huskies as
Bowdoin senior Pat Driscoll fired a scoreless ninth inning for the
save. Pace improved to 3-0 with the win, while Driscoll earned his
first save of the season. Pace struck out five and yielded just two
walks.
USM freshman P Josh Jillson took the loss for USM. Making his
fourth appearance on the mound, Jillson gave up four hits, three
walks and three earned runs in three innings of work.
