Harwich, Mass. --- St. Joseph's College of Maine senior Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.) finished 4-for-5 with a two-run homer and a trio of RBIs as he lifted the sixth-seeded Monks to a 9-2 victory over eighth-seeded Mitchell on the third day of the 2014 NCAA Division III New England Baseball Regional at Whitehouse Field this morning.
St. Joseph's (30-14) will take on the winner of the 1 p.m. matchup between fifth-seeded MIT and third-seeded Tufts at 8 o'clock tonight in Harwich. Mitchell, making their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, wraps up their season at 24-14-1.
The Monks were also paced on the mound by senior Joe Gruntkowsky (Peabody, Mass.), who sprinkled 12 hits as he surrendered two earned runs over 7 1/3 innings. Gruntkowsky (6-0) recorded six strikeouts and issued one walk on 140 pitches (91 strikes).
Gruntkowsky's effort on the hill marked the 12th in 18 quality start opportunities possible over the first nine contests of the regionals.
Senior Mike Tandy (Montrose, N.Y.) absorbed the loss for the Mariners. In his 5 1/3 frames, Tandy (5-3) allowed seven runs (five earned) on 12 hits to go with two strikeouts and one walk.
St. Joseph's freshman Taylor Black (Cardiff By The Sea, Calif.) propelled an offensive attack that outhit Mitchell, 17-13, with three singles. Senior Louie Vigars (Stratham, N.H.), classmate Alex Markakis (Lynnfield, Mass.), junior Nic Lops (S. Portland, Maine) and sophomore Taylor Reuillard (Biddleford, Maine) also tallied two base-knocks each.
Senior Marc Dorsi (W. Haven, Conn.) along with junior teammates Evan Peck (Shelton, Conn.), Rafael Garcia(New Britain, Conn.) and Blaze Ianetti (Middlesex, N.J.) all registered a pair of hits to lead Mitchell.
The Monks jumped on the board with the 3-0 advantage after five innings of play. Reuillard snapped the scoreless contest on a sacrifice fly in the fourth before Lorenc and Lops notched consecutive run producing at-bats.
St. Joseph's almost batted around with four tallies in the sixth as the frame was highlighted by a failed pickoff with a man at third base, an infield single by Vigars and fielder's choice RBI as the bases were juiced to take over a commanding 7-0 advantage.
Lorenc then cranked his third homer of the campaign over the fence in left field to give the Monks a 9-0 edge in the top of the eighth.
Gruntkowski ran out of gas in the bottom of the frame as the Mariners got something going by stringing three hits together over four plate appearances to lead off the frame.
Junior Ryan Goodwin (Tunkhannock, Pa.) followed with a run scoring deep fly and senior Will Charkowsky(Cold Spring, N.Y.) continued the outburst on an RBI single to the shortstop. But after junior Dan Meeken(Marshfield, Mass.) yielded a base on balls to put a man at every base, he got out of it with a ground-out.
Freshman Taylor Neville (Orono, Maine) finished off the game tossing a scoreless ninth to help the Monks move on to the New England Baseball Regional Semifinals.
Mitchell had two outstanding opportunities with runners on first and second as just one out read on the board in right in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth. However, the St. Joseph's defense got out of trouble by ending the frame by turning a pair of double plays to keep the Mariners scoreless until the eighth.
*Release courtesy of ECAC Communications Staff