Saint Joseph’s College defeated Husson
College by an 8-3 score on Sunday in the North
Atlantic Conference championship game. The win gives the Monks a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament for the second consecutive year. The Monks now stand at 30-8 overall, reaching the 30-win plateau for the third consecutive year and for the fifth time under head coach Will Sanborn.
Saint Joseph’s got on the board first when sophomore Wade Oliver (Owl’s Head) opened the game with a double. Senior captain Keil Martin (Saco) dropped down a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled by Husson allowing Oliver to score and advancing Martin to second.
In the bottom of the third inning the Royal Blue bats went back to work, scoring one run on two hits. Oliver singled to open the frame, then
advanced to second on a wild pitch. He then came in to score when junior Dustin Spiller (Gorham) doubled to centerfield.
The Monks plated three runs in their half of the fourth. First baseman Ben Grant-Roy (Biddeford) and catcher Andrew Wood (South Portland) started things with a pair of singles. Grant-Roy came home when designated hitter Chris Doughty (Westbrook) delivered a wall-ball double to deep left, and Wood later scored on a Martin sacrifice fly to put the Monks ahead 5-1.
The Royal Blue would use a two-out rally to obtain three insurance runs in the sixth. Martin delivered a single. Tournament MVP Luke Enman (Milan, N.H.) then hit a towering home run to put the Monks up 7-2. Spiller kept the inning going when he connected for a line drive triple to right-centerfield and he then scored on a wild pitch.
Wade Oliver finished the day 2-for-5 with two runs scored and Enman wound up 3-for-5 with three RBI. Andrew Wood posted a 3-for-3 championship game, while Grant-Roy and Spiller each chipped in two hits.
Veteran southpaw Ben Cutter (Westbrook) picked up the win on the mound. He held the Eagles at bay for six strong innings, allowing just two runs on four hits. Cutter recorded three strikeouts
en route to upping his personal record to 7-1 on the year. Andrew Keirstead went the final three innings to earn his second save of the year. Keirstead’s final pitch of the afternoon was a called third strike causing the Monks’ bench to
erupt in celebration of the NAC tournament championship.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group” said head coach Will Sanborn, who was showered with a cooler full of ice water by his players following the game. “Coming into the tournament we had been
a little inconsistent, but we were able to get focused and get back to basics. We strung together great at-bats all weekend and got some great pitching.”
The Monks will have to wait to see what lays ahead for them in the NCAA New England Regional Tournament. The field will be announced sometime in the near future by the NCAA.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
