BANGOR – It wasn’t known if Husson College junior righthander James Zukowski would be able to start Friday’s doubleheader opener against Lyndon State due to a hip pointer.

Unfortunately for the visiting Hornets, Zukowski was able to take the hill.

Zukowski fired a three-hitter, striking out a career-high 13 hitters, to pitch the Braves to a 7-1 win.

Dan Curtis drove in three runs with a double and a single in the nightcap and John Montgomery and Barrett Williams belted solo homers as the Braves completed the sweep 8-4 at the Husson College field.

Husson is now 12-20 while Lyndon State fell to 4-11.

Zukowski walked only one en route to improving his record to 5-4. It was his fourth straight win and he hasn’t allowed more than one earned run in any of those starts.

He threw 74 strikes among his 104 pitches.

“In a couple of innings, my hip tightened up. But, other than that, I felt great,” said Zukowski, who put a heating pad on his hip between innings. “I went with my fastball and slider. I kept my fastball on the outside corner. I mixed in my changeup in the later innings to keep their hitters off balance.

“I just tried to throw strikes and let my defense take care of the rest. The strikeouts were a bonus,” added Zukowski.

Lyndon State coach Skip Pound said Zukowski “changed speeds pretty well and kept us off balance. He was as good a pitcher as we’ve seen all year.”

Hornet catcher Jim Brooks, who had an RBI single in the fourth when his team strung together all three hits, said Zukowski “definitely knew how to change speeds. He’d get ahead in the count with his fastball and then come with a curve or changeup. He’d have us on our front foot. He also placed his fastball [well].”

Hard-throwing Hornet righty Alan Smith pitched well in defeat, but the Braves manufactured two-run rallies in the first, third, and sixth innings.

The Brewer double-play combination of Donnie Sawyer and Aaron Largay drove in the first- and third-inning runs.

In the first, Sawyer ripped a ground-rule double to right-center and Largay had an RBI fielder’s choice.

In the third, Sawyer followed singles by Mike King and Curtis with a bloop single to right and Largay delivered him with a ground ball single to right.

Jason Cyr homered to left in the fourth before pinch-hitter Chris Morris dropped a two-out, two-run double into short center in the sixth after Montgomery and Cyr reached with one-out base hits.

Cyr, Sawyer, and King had two hits each for Husson.

In the nightcap, every Husson starter had at least one hit and reliever Jeremy Rocheford, given a start to get some work in preparation for next week’s Maine Athletic Conference tournament, pitched 5 1/3 strong innings of four-hit, three-run ball. Just one run was earned.

He fanned two and walked three before Rich Doble finished up for the save.

“I was pretty satisfied,” said righty Rocheford. “It’s tough to pitch without your breaking ball. I used my fastball and changeup and tried to hit my spots like Zuke [Zukowski] did.”

Curtis gave Husson the lead for good with a ringing, bases-loaded double down the left-field line in the third off loser Corey Line.

“I was looking for a first-pitch fastball and he gave me one. It was a good pitch to hit,” said Curtis who leads Husson with 30 RBIs.

Montgomery homered to center to lead off the third and Williams homered to left center to open a five-run fifth inning that also featured a two-run, hit-and-run double to right by John McGlinn and RBI singles by Morris and Curtis.

Rocheford issued a pair of one-out walks in the sixth and was then replaced by Doble.

Doble issued a two-out walk to Bath’s Jason Lemont to load the bases and shortstop Sawyer bobbled a grounder by Skowhegan’s Ryan Farley that cut the lead to 8-2. Eight of the next nine pitches were balls, forcing in two more runs, before Doble got Brian Lalime to bounce to third baseman King.

Morris and Curtis had two hits each for Husson while Lyndon State received two doubles from Farley and two singles from Dave Sweet.

Braves 7, Hornets 1

First game

Lyndon State Husson

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Farley, ss 4 0 0 0 King, 3b 4 1 2 0

Clough, lf 3 0 0 0 Curtis, lf 3 2 1 0

Grimes, 3b 3 0 0 0 Sawyer, ss 3 1 2 2

Lalime, rf 3 1 1 0 Williams, 1b 2 0 0 0

Line, 2b 3 0 0 0 Largay, 2b 3 0 1 2

Sweet, 1b 2 0 1 0 Montgomery, rf 3 1 1 0

Brooks, c 3 0 1 1 Cyr, cf 3 2 2 1

a-McLaughlin 1 0 0 0 Pickering, dh 3 0 0 0

Taylor, dh 2 0 0 0 Worcester, c 2 0 0 0

Lemont, cf 3 0 0 0 b-Morris 1 0 1 2

Totals 27 1 3 1 Totals 27 7 10 7

a- courtesy runner for Brooks in 4th; struck out for Taylor in 7th

b- doubled for Worcester in 6th

Lyndon State 000 100 0 – 1

Husson 202 102 x – 7

E – Largay 2B – Sawyer, Morris HR – Cyr (2) LOB – Lyndon State 6, Husson 3

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Lyndon State

Smith (L, 1-3) 6 10 7 7 1 4

Husson

Zukowski (W, 5-4) 7 3 1 1 1 13

WP – Smith 2, Zukowski 2 TIME – 1:41 ATTENDANCE – 48

Husson 8, Lyndon State 4

Second game

Lyndon State (4-11) Husson (12-20)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Farley, ss 4 1 2 0 King, 3b 3 0 1 0

Clough, lf 3 0 0 1 Curtis, lf 2 0 2 3

Grimes, 2b-3b 2 0 0 1 Sawyer, ss 4 0 1 0

Lalime, rf-cf 4 0 0 0 Williams, 1b 4 1 1 1

Line, p-2b 4 0 1 0 Largay, 2b 4 0 1 0

a-Taylor 0 0 0 0 Montgomery, rf 3 2 1 1

Sweet, 1b 3 1 2 0 Cyr, cf 4 1 1 0

McLghlin, 3b- rf 3 1 0 0 Morris, dh 4 2 2 1

Brooks, c 1 0 0 0 McGlinn, c 2 0 1 2

Nutting, c 3 0 0 0 b-Creek 0 2 0 0

Totals 27 4 5 2 Totals 30 8 11 8

a – courtesy runner for Line in 2nd inning

b – courtesy runner for McGlinn in 3rd and 5th innings

Lyndon State 001 003 0 – 4

Husson 002 150 x – 8

E – Farley; Largay, King, Sawyer 2B – Farley 2, Curtis HR – Montgomery (2), Williams (2) LOB – Lyndon State 10, Husson 9 SB – Morris 2

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Lyndon State

Line (L, 0-2) 4 1/3 7 8 4 4 1

Lemont 1 2/3 4 0 0 0 0

Husson

Rocheford (W, 1-2) 5 1/3 4 3 1 3 2

Doble (S-1) 1 2/3 1 1 0 3 1

WP – Lemont, Rocheford 3 PB – Nutting TIME – 1:44 ATTENDANCE – 52