St. Joe’s tops Husson for NAC title

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STANDISH – It was a routine grounder that could have been a momentum-changing double play.

Instead, St. Joseph’s College catcher Andrew Wood’s roller to third took a bad hop and glanced off Husson College third baseman Adam Sheehan’s glove for a base hit that sparked a five-run fifth-inning rally which carried the top-seeded Monks to their second straight North Atlantic Conference title by virtue of a 17-6 triumph Sunday afternoon.

Host St. Joseph’s is now 33-8-1 while Husson of Bangor finished at 27-16.

St. Joseph’s is hoping to earn an NCAA Division III tourney berth but that won’t be announced until next Sunday.

Justin Spencer had greeted reliever Steve Lambert with a three-run homer in the top of the fifth to slice St. Joseph’s lead to 5-4.

But Husson starter and loser Chad Lavway walked Luke Enman to open the decisive inning and Ben Muniz singled.

Wood followed with his grounder.

“It traveled down in the dirt the whole way [until it hit the grass lip]. I was thinking it was a routine double-play ball. I set down in front of it but it bounced up and to my left. If it had bounced straight up, I would have been fine. But it kicked to my left also,” said Sheehan. “That seemed to be our luck the whole tournament.”

Husson shortstop Jason Harvey said, “That’s the way baseball goes. Some days you get the bounces, some days you don’t.”

St. Joseph’s freshman right fielder and tournament Most Valuable Player Wade Oliver of Owls Head called it a “big play.

“Every time they scored runs, we scored more runs. We persevered the whole game,” said Oliver.

Dustin Spiller followed by grounding a sharp two-run single to center and another run scored on an ensuing throwing error by Sheehan as he tried to nail Spiller going to second.

“He threw me a curveball that was a little lower than the other ones he had thrown me. It was a tough ball to go grab [and hit] but it was the best one I probably would have seen,” said Spiller.

Lavway said, “It was a low, outside slider and he did a great piece of hitting.”

Sam Adolphsen came on and surrendered a sacrifice fly to Keil Martin and a run-scoring single to Oliver before getting out of the inning.

“We couldn’t get the momentum back after that,” said Spencer.

“St. Joseph’s played extremely good ball. They got clutch hits, pretty decent pitching performances and they made all the plays in the field. They did everything they had to do to win,” said Spencer.

Monks lefty Steve Stout, who came on to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth by inducing Andrew Patterson to bounce into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded, pitched three innings of four-hit, two-run ball for the win.

Eddington knuckleballer Billy Chapman pitched two innings of one-hit, shutout ball.

Martin had three hits and three RBIs to pace the Monks’ 17-hit attack. Luke Enman, Oliver, Muniz, Mark Clapp Wood, Spiller and Jake Rodden had two hits each. Enman had a three-run homer and Oliver also had three RBIs. Clapp, Rodden and Spiller had two RBIs each.

Harvey had three hits for Husson. Spencer, Sean Brawn and Sheehan had two each.

Joining Oliver on the all-tourney team were Monks’ Charlie Furbush and Brian Schools; Husson’s Harvey, Sheehan and Spencer; Castleton State’s (Vt.) Adam Massey and Jeremy Gilcris and Thomas College of Waterville’s Jerry Randall and Ryan Rulman.

Husson had advanced to Sunday’s title game with a 7-4 win over Castleton State (Vt.) on Saturday night as Harvey and Sheehan each had a triple, double and single; Spencer hit a two-run homer and Brawn had a two-run triple.

MONKS 17, EAGLES 6

(Sunday Afternoon)

Husson (27-16) Saint Joseph’s (33-8-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

White, 2b 3 1 0 0 Oliver, rf 3 1 3

Spencer, cf 5 1 2 3 D. Enman, rf 0 1 0

Harvey, ss 5 1 3 0 Clapp, 3b 5 1 2

Ellis, pr 0 0 0 0 L. Enman, 2b 5 3 3

Brawn, dh 4 0 2 0 Muniz, 1b 5 3 0

Shannon, pr 0 1 0 0 Wood, c 3 1 2 1

Thomas, ph 1 0 0 0 Rodden, c 3 0 2

McInnis, rf 4 1 1 0 Spiller, cf 5 2 2

Sheehan, 3b 3 0 2 1 Furbush, dh 2 1 0

Patterson, 1b 4 0 1 1 Martin, lf 4 3

McGinley, c 3 0 0 0 Schools, ss 3 2 0

Potvin, c 1 0 0 0

Miller, lf 4 1 1 0

Totals 37 6 12 5 Totals 38 17 17 16

Husson 000 130 200 – 6

Saint Joseph’s 003 251 240 – 17

E-Harvey, Sheehan, Lavway; Clapp; LOB-Husson 9, Saint Joseph’s 9; 2B-Rodden 2, Martin; HR-Spencer (8); L. Enman (8); DP-Schools-L. Enman-Muniz; S-McInnis; Schools; SF-Oliver, Martin; SB-Harvey; Spiller

Husson IP H R ER BB SO

Lavway (L,3-5) 4 9 10 7 3 5

Adolphsen 1 1 0 0 0 1

Tripp 1 2 1 1 2 0

Pease 1 2 2 2 1 0

Worster 1 3 4 4 0 0

St. Joseph’s IP H R ER BB SO

Johnson 4 5 3 3 1 0

Lambert 0 2 1 1 0 0

Stout (W,3-2) 3 4 2 2 1 2

Chapman 2 1 0 0 0 1

HBP-Furbush (by Lavway), White 2 (by Johnson, by Chapman), Clapp (by Adolphsen), D. Enman (by Worster); WP-Adolphsen, Chapman; BK-Stout; T-2:55; ATT-300 (est.)