Sophomore Goes 4 for 5 with Three RBI
Coach Flaherty Goes for Career Win #900 on Thursday

            GORHAM, Maine -- Sophomore Paul McDonough (Wells, Maine) went 4 for 5 with three RBI to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies to a 7-5 win over the visiting Colby College Mules in a non-conference baseball game Wednesday afternoon at the USM Baseball Stadium.

            The win as the second straight for the Huskies and raised their overall record to 20-9.  The win was the 899th for veteran USM head coach Ed Flaherty who will go for his 900th career win tomorrow afternoon at Bates College.  The Mules dropped their second straight to slide to 15-9 overall.  The Mules are back in action on Friday (3:00 p.m.) playing at Bowdoin College.

            McDonough had a double and three singles, scored twice and snapped a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning with a two-run double.  Juniors Nick DiBiase (Portland, Maine/Deering) and Sam Dexter (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) had two hits apiece hitting in front of McDonough.  The first three batters in the Husky lineup accounted for eight of the team's 15 hits.

            Freshman Thomas Zarro (Billerica, Mass.) had a big day going 3 for 4 in the ninth spot of the order.  Freshman Anthony Capuano (Bangor, Maine) also had a pair of safeties.

            Junior right-hander Shyler Scates (Jefferson, Maine/Erskine Academy), the fourth of five USM hurlers, picked up his fourth win of the season going 1 1/3 innings.  Senior Andrew Richards (South Portland, Maine) pitched the final two innings to earn his fifth save of the season.

            Senior Tim Corey (Framingham, Mass./Rivers School) led the Mules offense with a double and a single, scored twice and drove in two runs.  Juniors Soren Hanson (Billerica, Mass./Belmont Hill) and Andrew Currier (Santa Monica, Calif./Brentwood School) had two singles apiece.

            Sophomore James Connelly (North Attleboro, Mass.), the fourth of six Colby pitchers used in the game, was tagged with his second loss of the season against one win.

            Dexter gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the third inning with a long home run over the scoreboard in left field.  The round tripper was the fifth of the season for Dexter.  McDonough followed with a single, stole second and scored on a Capuano single to make it 2-0.

            The Mules came right back in the fourth inning to tie the game on Corey's first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left-center field.

            Zarro scored when he and DiBiase worked a double steal in the home half of the frame.  McDonough would single home DiBiase to give USM a 4-2 edge.

            Again the Mules came right back scoring twice in the fifth inning to tie the game at 4-4.  Hanson singled in the first run, and junior Tommy Forese (New Canaan, Conn./St. Luke's School) came all the way around from first to score when Hanson's hit was misplayed in the outfield.

            The Huskies took the lead for good in the sixth.  DiBiase and Dexter had back-to-back one-out singles before McDonough roped a double to left-center field scoring both.  McDonough moved to third when sophomore Damon Wallace's (Gorham, Maine) ground ball was misplayed for an error, and scored on a fielder's choice by sophomore Matt Bender (Walpole, Mass.).

            Corey and junior Zach Ellenthal (Wilton, Conn.) produced a run against Richards in the eighth inning with a leadoff double and RBI single, respectively.  Richards found his form to retire the next six batters to get the save. 

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