WALTHAM, Mass. – The Lasell College baseball team swept a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) baseball doubleheader from Rivier University Saturday afternoon, taking the opener 7-6 and finishing off the sweep, 11-7.
Junior Joe Sullivan (East Sandwich, Mass.) highlighted the afternoon for the Lasers with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning of the opener. It was Sullivan's second homer of the season and just the third for Lasell this spring.
The Lasers also had three seniors record their 100th career hit in the twin bill. David Marsell (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) accomplished the feat in the first game, and Evan Michalek (Berlin, Conn.) and Andre Marchesseault (Cheshire, Conn.) reached the milestone in the nightcap.
The Lasers improve to 15-11 overall and 6-4 in the GNAC, while Rivier drops to 7-23 overall and 1-9 in the conference.
Both teams play GNAC doubleheaders at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, as Lasell visits Suffolk University and Rivier hosts Saint Joseph's College of Maine.
Game 1: Lasell 7, Rivier 6
After the visitors jumped on top in the top of the third inning on a two-run single by sophomore Frederick Kazalski (Dracut, Mass.), Lasell put five runs on the board in the bottom half of the inning. Marsell and Marchesseault had RBI singles in the rally, Sullivan walked with the bases loaded, and freshman Matt Motyka (Vernon, Conn.) added a two-run single.
Michalek singled in a run in the fourth inning to extend the Lasell lead to 6-2, and Marsell followed with his 100th hit, but Rivier came back to tie the game with four runs in the fifth inning. Freshman A.J. Mele (Nashua, N.H.) had an RBI single, Kazalski and senior Jorge Martinez (Methuen, Mass.) both had sacrifice flies, and Mele scored on a Lasell error. It stayed 6-6 until Sullivan's game-winning home run in the seventh.
Marsell finished with three hits for the Lasers, while Sullivan and Motyka had two hits and two RBI each. Kazalski drove in three for Rivier.
Junior Chris O'Connor (Duxbury, Mass.) earned the win (2-1) in relief for Lasell with two perfect innings of work, striking out four.
Game 1: Lasell 11, Rivier 7
The teams put up lots of crooked numbers in the early innings. Lasell took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first; Rivier tied it up 3-3 in the top of the second; the Lasers went back ahead with two in the bottom of the second, the Raiders answered to three in the top of the third to take their first lead, 6-5; and the Lasers went ahead for good, 8-6, with three more in the bottom of the third.
Juniors Eric Maxfield (Lowell, Mass.) and Brandon Thibault (Methuen, Mass.) each had two-run hits in the Rivier scoring, and Michalek and Marchesseault each reached the 100-hit milestone for Lasell.
Rivier cut the margin to 8-7 with an RBI triple by Thibault in the fifth inning, but Lasell answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, and Marchessault rounded out the scoring in the sixth inning with his first home run of the season.
Michalek finished with three hits and two RBI for Lasell, while Marchesseault and Sullivan had two hits apiece and Michalek and sophomore Wyatt Sihvonen (somewhere) each drove in a pair. Thibault went 3-for-3 with three RBI for the Raiders.
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