The USMMA baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Juniata to punch a ticket to the 2014 Landmark Conference Tournament.
Before Sunday’s game the USMMA baseball program honored its six graduating seniors: Warren Hartmann, Danny Collins, Jake Martin, Andrew MacKinnon, Timothy Arner and Nicholas Nalette. The Mariners will be the No. 4 seed in the Landmark Conference Tournament and take on regular season champion and host Moravian in the opening game on Saturday, May 3.
The Mariners took the opener over Juniata, 14-8, despite falling behind 4-0 in the first. The Mariners answered right back to take control of the game with seven runs in the bottom of the frame, with Hartmann, Collins, Martin, Joseph Policastro, Jacob Wood, and Quinn Fleming all plated runs during the rally.
USMMA piled on five more runs in the second inning to open up a commanding 12-4 advantage. Wood ripped a two-run double while Martin and Richard Kernan tacked on RBI singles. After a Juniata run in the top of the third, Hartmann and Collins launched back-to-back homers to push the USMMA advantage to 14-5.
Timothy Arner pitched six and two-thirds innings to earn the victory.
USMAA took the second game, 5-1, as Wood recorded another RBI hit in the bottom of the second to make it 1-0. USMMA got its second run in the third frame on a first-and-third double steal that saw MacKinnon take home. Collins followed the double steal with a RBI single to give the home team a 3-0 cushion.
Patrick Morgan made the early runs stand up as the rookie pitched a complete game allowing just one run, zero earned. Morgan scattered seven hits and struck out three batters en route to his fourth victory of the year. Hartmann and Martin tallied RBI hits as the Mariners came away with the double header sweep thanks to the 5-1 verdict.
In the finalé, with playoff implications on the line, Cameron Stadele put the Mariners up early with a two-run single in the bottom of the first inning and Kyle Clausen made the runs stand up, pitching seven strong innings allowing one earned run to earn the win, 8-1.
Juniata cut the Mariners lead to 2-1, but Fleming provided an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh with a two-out single up the middle. He would score two-batters later on Hartmann’s milestone 200th career hit to make it a 4-1 affair. USMMA added four more runs in the bottom of the eighth on the strength of doubles from Policastro and MacKinnon, a Francis Grzymkowski single and a Wood sacrifice fly.
Martin worked a scoreless eighth while Stadele retired the side in the ninth to secure the Mariners trip to the 2014 Landmark Conference playoffs.
Men’s Lacrosse
The USMMA men’s lacrosse team closed out the 2014 campaign with a dominant 14-6 victory over Washington & Jefferson. East Meadow’s Chirs Whitenack was a perfect 20-of-20 at the face-off “X” while Geoff Harty tallied five goals and one assist in the win. Before the opening face-off, USMMA honored its four graduating players who competed in their last collegiate game: Chirs Anthony, Brett Crawford, Alex Cline and Phil Walker.
Women’s Lacrosse
Alexandra Winfree scored twice but the USMMA women’s lacrosse team dropped a 19-4 decision to Scranton in the 2014 season finale at Brooks Stadium. Before the game the Mariners honored the program’s five graduating seniors: Alexandra Winfree, Grace Mariani, Shannen Dunn, Katie Noonan and Erin Hofstetter.
