Bowen and Madden Blank Albertus; Baseball Sweeps Falcons

WEST HAVEN, Conn. (4/13/14) – The Lasell College baseball team swept a pair of Great Northeast Athletic Conference games against Albertus Magnus College, winning 5-0 and 3-0 on Sunday afternoon. The Lasers improved to 15-9 overall and 9-3 in league games while the Falcons slipped to 10-13 on the year and 3-7 in GNAC games.

Game One – Lasell 5 – Albertus Magnus 0

Matt Sammarco (New Canaan, Conn.) drove in a pair of runs for Lasell and Ryan Bowen (Hudson, Mass.) went the distance, scattering six hits while tossing seven innings for Lasell with four strikeouts. Chris Pittman (Brockton, Mass.) doubled for the Lasers, while Bobby Ellard (Medfield, Mass.) and Brandon Valentin (Meriden, Conn.) each singled twice while scoring on run apiece.

Lasell got things rolling in the bottom of the second inning when Chris Pittman was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Pittman was sacrificed to second, coming in to score on a single by Hector Coscione (Newton, Mass.). Bobby Ellard followed with a single, and both runners came in to score on a double by Matt Sammarco to stake Lasell's Bowen to a 3-0 lead.

Anthony Pellegrino (Branford, Conn.) ripped a one-out double off the left field fence in the top of the fourth inning, and Jack Pritchard (Orange, Conn.)worked a two-out walk but a flair to right field resulted in Pellegrino being thrown out at the plate by Coscione to preserve the Lasers 3-0 lead.

Albertus opened the top of the fifth with consecutive singles by Nick Seida (Bronx, N.Y.) and Mike Saia (Bridgeport, Conn.) to put runners on first and second with nobody out. A sliding catch by Sammarco in left resulted in the first out and a fly ball to left that landed in Sammarco's mitt accounted for the second out. Bowen got the final out of the inning on a fly out to right field that squashed the Albertus Magnus threat.

Lasell opened the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to right by Brandon Valentin and a double to left by Dan Gagnon (Pomfret Center, Conn.) that gave the Lasers runnners on second and third with nobody out. Billy Uberti singled through the drawn in infield to score both runners and make it a 5-0 Lasell lead, and the Lasers held on from there to win game one 5-0.

Game Two – Lasell – Albertus Magnus

Billy Uberti homered and singled, scoring twice and driving in a run for the Lasers and Kevin Post (Cromwell, Conn.) singled and doubled for Lasell while driving in a run. Rob Madden (Hingham, Mass.) went all seven innings on the hill, allowing four hits while blanking the Falcons for the second straight contest.

Lasell took a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning when Billy Uberti sent an offering from Levchcuk over the right field fence.

The Lasers added two more in the third, using a one-out single by Uberti followed by a walk to Wes Hurty (Windsor, Conn.) and a double by Chris Pittman that scored Uberti. Wes Hurty was thrown out at the plate trying to score on the Pittman double, but a double by Post scored Pittman to give Lasell a 3-0 lead.

Madden continued to handcuff the Falcons, as Lasell managed to claim the 3-0 win in game two to complete the sweep. Lasell will head to St. Joseph's for a GNAC doubleheader tomorrow for a GNAC doubleheader in Standish, Maine, starting at 3:00 p.m.