DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Junior
Ryan Qualey won a pitchers duel in game two, throwing a complete-game shutout with 12 strikeouts to help the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth baseball team earn a 1-0 win. The first game of the day was won by Southern Maine, 8-5, freshman
Devyn Vezina crushed his first-career home run in the third inning.
The Corsairs stay above .500 and are now 8-7 on the year and 1-1 in the Little East Conference (LEC), while the Huskies drop to 4-9 and 1-1 in the conference.
GAME ONE
Vezina finished 2-for-3 with three RBI, including his two-run home run, while junior
Andrew Bryant drove in a run with a double, and freshman
Scott Cromack led the team with two runs scored.
Southern Maine jumped ahead to a 5-0 advantage midway through the third inning. Two scored in the first when sophomore Jack LeBlond broke the game open with a two-run shot over the right-field fence. Three runs for the Huskies came across in the second on an RBI single, an error by the Corsairs, and a bases loaded hit batter to extend the USM lead to 5-0.
It only took two innings for UMass Dartmouth to even the score at five. Vezina started the offense in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer to left. Bryant then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to score freshman
Chase Pariseau. The Corsairs tied the game in the fourth when senior
Chase Stafford crossed the plate on an error, and Vezina singled home Cromack to make it 5-5.
Southern Maine took the lead back for good in the sixth on a two-RBI double. The Huskies added one more insurance run in the top of the ninth on an RBI base hit to finish off game one.
GAME TWO
Game two was all about Qualey. The junior went the distance, finishing with 12 K's and allowed just three hits with one walk in a gem of a performance, as the Corsairs beat Southern Maine, 1-0.
Not to be forgotten was the pitching performance on the other side. Sophomore Bryce Afthim went eight innings with nine strikeouts and allowed just one earned.
That one run came off the bat of junior
DJ Perron, who singled home senior
Chase Stafford in the fourth inning.
Qualey cruised through a dangerous Southern Maine lineup, forcing eight groundouts and six flyouts. Qualey got better as the game went on, he struck out one batter in the first, second, fourth, seventh, and eighth innings, picked up two K's in the fifth and sixth, and retired the side in the third.
UP NEXT
UMass Dartmouth is back on the diamond on Sunday at Wheaton College for a 12 p.m. first pitch.
