Box Score Southern Maine Falls to St. Thomas (Minn.) 5-1
AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- Senior left-hander Eric Veglahn (La Crescent, Minn.) struck out 12 over eight innings to lead the University of St. Thomas Tommies to a 5-1 win over the University of Southern Maine Huskies in a noon-conference game Saturday morning at Lake Myrtle Field #5.
The win improved the Tommies overall record to 6-2 heading into a Saturday afternoon game with Keuka College. The Huskies dropped their second straight game to finish their Florida swing at 4-4 and 6-4 overall.
Veglahn was dominating striking out at least one USM batter in each of the eight innings he pitched, including fanning the side in the fifth inning. The southpaw gave up just one run on nine hits without walking a batter.
St. Thomas took advantage of five consecutive hits in the first inning against senior left-handed reliever Dan Kinnon (Londonderry, N.H.) to take a 3-0 lead. Kinnon came on after rookie starter Dalton Rice (Waterford, Maine/Oxford Hills) got the first hitter, but had to leave the game with an injury. Kinnon retired the first batter he faced before surrendering three runs.
Senior Brady Johnson (Andover, Minn.) singled, and classmate Cory Quinlan (Maplewood, Minn.) doubled him home to make it 1-0. Senior Ben Waltz (Minneapolis, Minn.) singled to put runners on the corners before rookie Sam Cobbs (Woodbury, Minn.) doubled in Quinlan. Sophomore Jimmy Dolan (Mendota Heights, Minn.) finished off the rally with a single to knock in Waltz.
Southern Maine got on the scoreboard in the top of the third as senior Sam Dexter (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) singled with two outs and came around to score on a double by sophomore Sam Stauble (Harrison, Maine/Bridgton Academy).
The Tommies responded in the home half of the inning scoring twice. Johnson led off with a walk from Kinnon. Quinlan greeted USM senior right-handed reliever Ryan Browner (Georgetown, Mass.) for an RBI triple, and scored on Waltz's single. Browner settled down to get out of the inning without further damage and pitched three more effective innings. Seven of St. Thomas' eight hits in the game came during the two rallies.
Southern Maine had two runners aboard against Veglahn in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but could not come up with a timely base hit. USM outhit St. Thomas 9-8 for the game.
Stauble continued his torrid hitting going 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Junior Paul McDonough (Wells, Maine) and rookie Kip Richard (Kennebunk, Maine) also had a pair of hits. Kinnon took the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season.
Quinlan and Waltz had two hits apiece for the Tommies. Veglahn, who gave up his first run of the season, improved to 2-0 on the season. The southpaw has 24 strikeouts in 19.1 innings and a 0.46 ERA this season.
Southern Maine returns to New England and will travel to Northborough, Mass., on Tuesday to play Framingham State University.
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