Dunmore, PA – The CMCC Baseball team got its spring season underway on the road, splitting a doubleheader against Penn State University-Scranton. The Nittany Lions took game one 8-1 before the Mustangs battled back to take the second contest by a 9-2 scoreline.
"We you're playing a team that's in their tenth game of the spring and it's only your first, it kind of puts you behind the eight ball," said head coach Ryan Palmer. "Despite the score, I thought we did some good things in game one. We grounded into a few double plays that took runs off the board and had a couple miscues defensively that gave Scranton some free runs. In game two, we played like I know we're capable of. Got runners on base almost every inning and got timely hitting. Overall, our pitching was good in both games."
Game One, 1-8 L
CMCC gave Kyle Delano the starting nod against Ethan Stotch in the first game of the spring season. The Mustangs got runners to first and third before a double play ended the scoring threat in the top of the first. PSU then got to work in the bottom half of the inning, plating four runs. Logan Moss drove in Martino Tobasco with an RBI single and Alex Brinkman smashed a two-run home run to make it 3-0. Jake Sullivan scored on an Isaiah Alicea RBI to round out the first.
The Nittany Lions added three more in the second. Keegan Litts lined a two-run shot that brought home both Guy Mushow and Bronson Kilmer. Litts crossed home plate himself via a Sullivan single later in the inning.
That would be the end of Delano's day with Jeff Meisner and Logan Carpenter also pitching two innings a piece. Meisner gave up one run in the fourth on a Brinkman double, but the Mustangs avoided the shutout in the sixth. Garren Post reached safely with his second of the day followed by a double from Brady Vincent. Hayden Durrell then walked to load the bases with one out. Catcher Cameron Dostie his a single to drive in Post, but Shane Jewett grounded into a double play to end the scoring threat.
Stotch closed things out in the seventh to pick up a complete game victory, striking out three and giving up five walks.
Game Two, 9-2 W
Durrell, Lee Robertson, and newcomer Cody Cleaveland all had two RBIs to power the Mustangs offense to a 9-2 victory in game two. Vincent threw five and a third strong innings on the mound, starting by retiring the side in order in both the first and second.
Central Maine took advantage to grab the lead in the top of the third. Robertson singled to lead things off and Brandon Gour moved him over with a sac-bunt before a wild pitch put him on third base. Zac Gorman walked and Steven White came in as a courtesy pinch runner for the catcher. Post plated one with a single into the gap and Durrell doubled to bring in White. With the bases loaded, Kilmer plunked Jewett with a pitch to make it 3-0.
Penn State Scranton scrapped their way back into it, scoring a run in both the bottom of the third and fourth innings courtesy of RBIs by Tobasco and Robert Jacobs. But Vincent got out of the jam by striking out Alex Ferguson after a long fourth inning to protect a 3-2 lead.
Cleaveland, fresh off winning the USCAA national championship as one of the country's best goalkeepers on the men's soccer team, showed off his baseball skills in the fifth. The Richmond, ME native legged out a triple to bring home Durrell. Robertson brought him and Jewett home with a two-RBI single later in the inning to make it 6-2.
Post singled and scored in the sixth on another Durrell RBI. The third-year first baseman from Westbrook, ME had the best day at the plate of any Mustangs player, with Post finishing the doubleheader going 5-for-8 and scoring three times. Cleaveland continued his strong afternoon as well with another extra-base hit, this time an RBI double to give CMCC an 8-2 lead.
Teddy McFarland came on in relief after Vincent wrapped up his day with his fifth strikeout. McFarland, a second semester edition to the team out of Massachusetts, closed things out by striking out two in the bottom of the seventh. That came after Post got an RBI of his own on a single that scored Gour.
Central Maine now heads over to Penn State DuBois for a nine-inning game on Thursday night. First pitch is slated for 6:00 pm.
