GORHAM, Maine – Senior
Kyle Douin (Augusta, Maine/Cony) was 3-for-4 at the plate with five RBI to lead the top-seeded University of Southern Maine Huskies to a 14-6 win over the third-seeded UMass Dartmouth Corsairs to advance to the championship game of the 2026 Little East Conference Baseball Tournament. The Huskies will play for the championship on Saturday (9:00 am).
Douin was one of four Huskies to record at least two hits in the win. Freshman
Kaiden Morin was 4-for-5 with two runs scored, while junior
Peter Keblinsky (Ellsworth, Maine) was 3-for-6 with three RBI, and junior
Mike Anquillare (North Haven, Conn.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Freshman
Hayden Strout (Charleston, Maine/Foxcroft Academy) earned the win for the Huskies pitching seven strong innings.
Records:
No. 3 UMass Dartmouth (21-21) 500 100 000 6-7-0
No. 1 Southern Maine (29-10) 2(10)0 200 00x 14-14-1
Pitching Records:
WP: SM,
Hayden Strout (6-1), 7.0 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 6 BB, 1 K
LP: UMD, AJ Rourke (4-3), 1.1 IP, 5 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
SV: None
How It Happened:
- Batting through the order, UMass Dartmouth leapt out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first collecting four hits and three walks off of the Huskies' Strout. Jayden Cruz led off the game with a single to the gap and right and put UMD ahead 1-0 scoring on a passed ball. Luc Nivaud had an RBI single in the inning, while Jake San Antonio laced a two-run double down the left field line for a 4-0 Corsair advantage. Ryan Jones made it 5-0 with an RBI ground out before Strout ended the inning with a fly out to Cruz in his second at bat.
- The Huskies fought back in the bottom of the inning taking two runs back on a two-run single up the middle from Keblinsky. Keblinsky drove in junior Evan Baschnagel (Garden City, NY) and Douin to make it a 5-2 game. Baschnagel, who had three RBI in the game, led off with a walk and Douin doubled to right to start the game.
- Strout settled in and kept the Corsairs off the board in the second with a pair of ground outs and fly out working around a hit by pitch, and the Huskies' offense did the rest in the bottom of the inning scoring 10 runs to lead 12-5. Loading the bases with one out, Douin singled in two runs making it a one-run game before Keblinsky tied it up at 5-5 with an RBI single through the left side. After the first of two hit-by-pitch plays in the inning kept the Huskies' bases loaded, Douin scored on a wild pitch to take the lead. After another hit-by-pitch, Anquillare made it 7-5 drawing an RBI. After that, USM freshman James Main, senior Chris Quigley (Halifax, Mass.) and Baschnagel each had RBI walks to put the Huskies up 10-5 before Douin added two more RBI on a single to right field for the 12-5 USM lead.
- Both teams were quiet in the third inning, and the Corsairs struck for a run on a sacrifice fly RBI from Luc Nivaud in the top of the fourth. However, the Huskies added two more runs of their own in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single up the middle from Baschnagel and Douin's fifth RBI of the game for a 14-6 lead.
- Both teams were quiet through eight innings. Freshman Kason Lewis (South Portland, Maine) fired a 1-2-3 top of the eighth for the Huskies retiring UMass Dartmouth on nine pitches. In the top of the ninth, sophomore Sam Calder (Monmouth, Maine/Monmouth Academy) also sat the Corsairs in order on nine pitches to end the game.
Up Next:
Southern Maine advances to the championship game of the 2026 Little East Conference Baseball Championship on Saturday.
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