UMass Boston Knocks Off Southern Maine 9-4

            GORHAM, Maine -- The visiting University of Massachusetts Boston Beacons took advantage of four hits, a walk and an error to score five times in the third inning and went on to defeat the University of Southern Maine Huskies 9-4 in Little East Conference baseball action Wednesday afternoon at the USM Baseball Stadium.

            The win was the seven straight for the surging Beacons, and gave them a sweep of the teams' regular season home-and-home series.  The Beacons improved to 20-12 on the season and 6-4 in conference play.  The Huskies had their three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 21-10 overall and 7-3 in LEC play.

            Senior Bryan Dupre (Chicopee, Mass.) open the third frame reaching on an outfield error, and sophomore Sal Frosceno (Derby, Conn.) and sophomore Lionel Danielson (St. Croix, Virgin Islands) followed with back-to-back doubles to open up a 2-0 Beacon lead.  After a lineout, junior Dave Murphy (Plymouth, Mass.) was intentionally walked to set up a potential double play.  Danielson and Murphy negated that strategy by stealing second and third, and rookie Ryan Olivo (Rochester, N.Y.) brought Danielson home with a groundout.  Junior Alex Searles (Shelton, Conn.) followed with a single to plate Murphy, and later scored on a single from freshman Charlie Huegi (Sandy Hook, Conn.).

            After UMB rookie staring pitcher Fernando Burgos (Hyde Park, Mass./John D. Bryant) retired the Huskies in order, the Beacons added three runs to their lead in the fourth to go up 8-0.  Murphy, Olivo and Searles had consecutive RBI base hits in the inning.

            Southern Maine got on the board in the fifth inning as sophomore Nick Bowie (South Paris, Maine/Oxford Hills) scored on an infield throwing error.

            The Beacons scored their final run in the seventh when freshman Kyle Boudrias (Medford, Mass./Arlington Catholic) and Dupre singled to put runners at the corners, and Frosceno drove in Boudrias with a groundout.

            The Huskies got two runs in the eight on a two-run homer by junior Paul McDonough (Wells, Maine), and one in the ninth on an RBI single by freshman Kaleb Bridgham (Minot, Maine/Poland Regional).

            Burgos picked up his second win in nine days over the Huskies going six innings.  Burgos allowed one unearned run on three hits and three walks while striking out one.

            Danielson, Murphy, Searles, Boudrias, Huegi and Frosceno all had two hits in the Beacons' 15-hit attack.  Every starter had at least one hit for the Beacons.

            Bowie was the lone repeat hitter for the Huskies.  Freshman southpaw Matt Correale (Peabody, Mass.), the first of six USM pitchers used in the game, took his third loss of the season.  Correale went 2 2/3 innings giving up five runs (only one earned) on four hits and two walks while fanning one.

            Southern Maine travels to Bates College tomorrow (4:00 p.m.) for a non-conference game.  UMass Boston will play at MIT tomorrow afternoon (4:00 p.m.). 

-ble-