BOSTON – Adam Maher allowed pitched seven scoreless innings allowing just three hits and Chris Kustigian had three RBI to lead the third seed UMass Dartmouth Corsairs to a 6-0 win over the fourth seed University of Southern Maine Huskies in the third game of the 2024 Little East Conference Baseball Championship Tournament Thursday afternoon at Monan Park.
Series History:
Today's game marked the 104
th meeting between the University of Southern Maine and UMass Dartmouth. Southern Maine leads the overall series with the Corsairs 73-31; however, UMD swept the Huskies 5-0, 5-0 during the regular season match up, and with today's win have won three consecutively over Southern Maine.
Records:
No. 4 Southern Maine (17-20) 000 000 000 0-3-0
No. 3 UMass Dartmouth (21-18-1) 031 000 02x 6-11-1
Pitching Record:
WP: Adam Maher (6-2), 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 7 K
LP:
Clay Robbins (4-4), 7.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Game 1 – Southern Maine, UMass Dartmouth
- After a scoreless first inning as both Maher and Husky starter Clay Robbins (Auburn, Maine/Edward Little) started out strong retiring each side in order, the Corsairs got on the board in the second. Andrew Possi led off with a double, and Matt Tempone picked up a one out walk giving UMD runners on first and third. Robbins got the second out of the inning with a strikeout, but Kustigian connected on a three-run home run to put the Corsairs ahead 3-0.
- UMD made it 4-0 in the bottom of the third on an RBI double down the left field line from Devyn Vezina following a lead off single from Brett Baker. With a runner on second and no outs, the Huskies bounced back as Robbins forced a fly out, and the got Possi to line out into a double play to end the inning.
- After the third, Robbins kept the Corsairs off the board for the remainder of his appearance. The Huskies had a runner in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh inning but were unable to push a run across. Maher helped strand seven runners. Robbins closed out his appearance with a one-two-three inning in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back fly outs and a ground out to second base.
- UMD scored its final two runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single from Possi and an RBI single from Anthony Keefe for the 6-0 final.
- Senior Christian Siciliano (Shrewsbury, Mass./St. John's) had a single for the Huskies, while seniors Jack LeBlond (Lewiston, Maine/Bridgton Academy) and Lucas Francis (Lisbon, Maine/Lisbon Falls) each had a double.
Up Next:
Southern Maine will play again tonight (7:00 pm). The Huskies will face top seed UMass Boston.
-cac-