Huskies roll into tourney after elimination loomed

One week ago, the University of Southern Maine baseball team had lost three consecutive games and was one loss away from having its season end.

Today, the Huskies are in Grand Chute, Wis., where they’re the top-seeded team heading into the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship at Fox Cities Stadium.

Coach Ed Flaherty’s ballclub takes a 36-12 record into Friday’s 8:45 p.m. first-round game against SUNY-Cortland (33-9) in the eight-team, double-elimination tourney.

Southern Maine is making its second straight trip, and its sixth overall, to the Division III championship. The program won national titles in 1991 and ’97, both under Flaherty.

The Huskies demonstrated tremendous resilience, battling back from a first-game loss last week to win four in row and capture the NCAA Division III New England Regional crown at Harwich, Mass.

USM became the first team to emerge from the losers’ bracket to win the tournament, beating Salve Regina (5-3), Bridgewater State (12-10) and Williams (6-3) before avenging back-to-back losses in the Little East Conference Tournament while knocking off Eastern Connecticut 11-7 in the title game.

There are 12 Mainers on the USM roster, including a pair of mainstays from the eastern Maine region.

Jason Dority of Winterport is among the Huskies’ senior leaders. The Hampden Academy product has been an outstanding designated hitter, batting .369.

He has cracked two home runs and 10 doubles and his 40 RBIs rank third on the team.

Pitcher Pat Liddy of Farmington has returned from an injury to be solid pitcher for USM. The sophomore is 4-1 with a 4.34 earned run average.

Liddy, who missed all of the 2000 season with an injury, pitched a complete game last Sunday to help the Huskies get into the Regional title game, then came on to throw 32/3 innings of one-run relief in the championship game on his way to tourney most outstanding player honors.

USM’s plate attack is led by senior infielder Pat Toomey, who has a .441 average with five homers and 37 RBIs. Tyler Delorme, a sophomore outfielder, checks in with a .392 average and leads the team with nine homers and 62 RBIs.

Andy Lang (.395, 4 HR, 39 RBIs), Pat McDonough (.394, 17 RBIs) and Jody Curcuru (.317, 6 HR, 59 RBIs) are other top producers for the Huskies, who have a .345 team batting average.

USM also likes to run when possible and has stolen 96 bases in 136 attempts, a 71 percent success rate. Shaun Richardson (.352, 26 RBIs) has swiped 22 bases while Toomey and Delorme have stolen 16 each.

While their pitching hasn’t been overly dominating, the Huskies have gotten the job done with a relatively deep staff. Senior righthander Mark Russell leads the way with a 6-1 record and a 4.04 ERA, while Ryan Adams (4-1, 3.50), Todd Southwick (5-2, 5.09) and Liddy have made up the nucleus of the starting staff.

The relief corps includes the durable Alden Pelletier who is 4-3 with four saves in 23 appearances, along with Mark Gunning of Winslow (5-0, 5.08) and Erik Carlson (3-1, 5.34).

USM’s second-round opponent will be either St. Thomas (35-9) of Minnesota or Illinois Wesleyan (37-13-1). St. Thomas beat USM twice this season (19-5 and 11-6 in 11 innings) during the Huskies’ Florida swing.