Baseball suffers three set backs to Mary Washington

(Fredericksburg, Virginia) The Rivier University Baseball team continued their southern trip with a three game set at the University of Mary Washington. The Raiders, who fall to 0-6 after the series, had a chance to win the second game but eventually lost in extra innings 4-3.

Game One: Mary Washington 25, Rivier 2 (Final)

Sophomore Matthew Keefe (Bradford, Mass.) got the start on the mound for the Raiders and could never find a groove as Rivier fell 25-2. Keefe allowed 8 runs on 7 hits while walking 4 in just two innings of work. Four freshman relievers came in to finish the game and allowed another 15 runs. Freshman Drew Neely (Lakeland, FL) was the lone pitcher to toss a scoreless frame as he struckout two over 1.1 innings of work. Classmate Adam Arkell (Dover, NH) gave up two unearned runs in his lone inning of work.

Offensively for the Raiders, juniors JJ Montello (Nashua, NH) and David Cusack (Newburyport, Mass.) were each 1-for-2 with Montello scoring both the runs. Sophomore Jeremy Ball (Swanzey, NH) recorded an RBI on a sac fly and sophomore Michael Janerico (Waquiot, Mass.) went 1-for-3.

Game Two: Mary Washington 4, Rivier 3 (Final/8 innings)

Sophomore Edward Soucie (South Ryegate, Vermont) pitched a gem as he allowed Mary Washington to score just three runs over six innings of work. The 6-4 right-hander scattered seven hits and only issued two walks. Sophomore Spencer Aguiar (Malden, Mass.) took the tough luck loss as he gave up the walk off hit in the bottom of the 8th.

Rivier had a chance to take the lead in the sixth but squandered that opportunity on a failed suicide squeeze.

Sophomore Taylor Black (Springfield, Mass.) went 2-for-3 and both junior Michael Scanlon (Plantsville, Conn.) and Cusack added RBI base hits for the Raiders. Montello also recorded an RBI on his 1-for-4 afternoon.

Game Three: Mary Washington 9, Rivier 0 (Final)

Sophomore Jon Chotkowski (Tewksbury, Mass.), making his first start of the season, gave up 7 runs on 10 hits as the Raiders closed the series with a 9-0 loss. The young left-hander was solid through the first 2.1 innings but a little fatigue set in and wasn't able to locate which allowed the strong UMW offense to attack. Aguiar came in relief to finish the fourth inning before watching junior Alex Mears (Salem, NH) toss a scoreless frame and junior Lucas Palma (Bristol, Conn.) pitch the final inning.

The Raiders could only muster up two hits after a 9 hit performance in game one against UMW's Bernie Mayflower. Neely finished the game 1-for-2 and freshman Zachary St. Cyr (Rochester, NH) added a pinch hit single in the seventh.

Rivier will close out the southern swing on Wednesday afternoon as they travel down to Norfolk, Virginia for a 3pm contest with Virginia Wesleyan University.