Lasell Earns Spot in GNAC Baseball Final Four with Victory over Albertus Magnus

Waltham, Mass. (4/24/13) – The Lasell College baseball team used solid pitching and small-ball to move into the Great Northeast Athletic Conference quarterfinals with a 5-3 victory over Albertus Magnus on Wednesday evening. Lasell moved to 13-21 on the season, while the Falcons dropped to 12-18 for the 2013 season.

Dustin Brown (Falmouth, Mass.) went 3 for 4 at the plate for Lasell and scored a run, Billy Uberti (Newton, Mass.) doubled and drove in two runs, and Wes Hurty (Windsor, Conn.) chipped in a two RBI single to lead the Lasers to victory. David Long (Brookfield, Conn.) earned the victory on the mound for Lasell, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out six in the game. Greg Sherman (Marshfield, Mass.) pitched three and a third scoreless innings, yielding two hits and striking out a pair to pick up the save.

Anthony Pellegrino (Branford, Conn.) went 3 for 5 at the plate for the Falcons with a run batted in and Shane Osborn (Lake Worth, Fla.) collected a pair of singles while driving in two runs. Zak Sokolis (Meriden, Conn.) finished with a pair of singles for Albertus and scored twice in the game. Mike Barillaro (Meriden, Conn.) went the distance on the mound for Albertus, tossing eight innings and allowing five runs on 10 hits while recording five strikeouts.

Sokolis reached on a one out single for the Falcons in the top of the first, stole second and came in to score on a single by Osborn to put Albertus in front 1-0.

Uberti led off the bottom of the first with a double for Lasell, advancing to third on a sacrifice by Rob Madden (Hingham, Mass.). Uberti was caught off third on a groundout by Bobby Stachura (Middletown, Conn.) for the second out while Stachura reached base. Dustin Brown singled to give Lasell runners on first and second with two outs. Matt Sammarco (New Canaan, Conn.) followed with an RBI single that scored Stachura and advanced to second on the throw to the plate to give Lasell runners on second and third with two outs. Wes Hurty (Windsor, Conn.) singled to right center field that plated Brown and Hurty to put Lasell on top 3-1.

Albertus tied the game in the top of the third inning, using a single by Patrick Dornfield (Berlin, Conn.) and a walk to Sokolis to put runners on first and second with one out. Back-to-back singles by Pellegrino and Osborn scored Dornfield and Sokolis to tie the game at 3-3 through two and a half innings of play.  

Corey Michel (Rochester, N.H.) led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single for Lasell, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After moving to third on a wild pitch, Michel came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Uberti to put Lasell in front 4-3 after the fifth inning.

Lasell tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Skyler Beckerman (Pensacola, Fla.) scored on a squeeze bunt by Uberti to give Lasell a 5-3 lead.

Sherman retired Albertus Magnus in order in the eighth, and closed the game out by fanning the first two batter for Albertus in the ninth before recording the final out on a pop up to second base after allowing a two-out single.

Lasell will travel to Johnson and Wales University on Thursday evening for a 6:00 p.m. match-up with the top-seeded Wildcats in the quarterfinals as the GNAC playoff head into the double elimination portion of play.