Matt Borelli, Staff Writer:
The Owls baseball team defeated Pace University 11-0 on Thursday to improve to 35-4-1 (19-4-1 in Northeast-10) and paced themselves toward a Northeast-10 regular season title.
“We have played well all season and hopefully it continues the rest of the way,” said head coach Tim Shea.
Starting pitcher Steve Simon tossed eight strong innings, allowed no runs on seven hits and recorded a career high 12 strikeouts.
“I felt good today, the ball was coming out well and I just tried to maintain focus on the mound,” said Simon.
The Owls got on the board early as they got two runs across the plate in bottom of the first. A.J Rouleau, who finished with two RBI on the day, blasted a two RBI single into left field. Southern struck again in the third inning as Ryan Geffert smacked a two RBI single, followed by a bases clearing triple from Bryan Dorsey. Geffert led the offense as he went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. The Owls led 5-0 heading into the fourth.
“We all felt pretty good today, we hit the ball well and Steve pitched great,” said Geffert.
With Simon cruising through the Pace lineup, the Owls were at it again in the sixth inning when sophomore Michael Cleary hit his 19th RBI of the season. T.J Shea followed with an RBI of his own to increase the Owl lead to 7-0.
“Steve was really good today and our bats were hitting well, we got on base and played good defense,” said Shea. “All of that with good pitching, your going to win a lot of games.”
The Owls added another run in the seventh
and three more in the eighth inning. Greg Pacelli had a pinch hit two RBI single, while Kyle Cummings went 1-for-5 with one run scored and an RBI.
A.J Turnier closed out the game and struck out the final three batters to seal the win. Pace is 14-27 overall (6-18 in Northeast-10).
The Owls clinched the Northeast-10 regular season title Saturday as they swept the UMass Lowell River Hawks. The Owls took the first game 3-1 and won the second game 2-0.
Winning pitcher Kevin Pettine went eight innings and gave up three hits and one run, while Michael Johnston came in and threw a 13 pitch inning to secure the win and the save.
In game, two the Owls, got another great pitching performance from junior Chris Zbin as he tossed seven innings struck out seven, gave up no runs and three hits. Junior Ryan Yerina came in and pitched the final inning.
Johnston came back in to close the door for a second game in a row.
Southern will participate in the Northeast-10 Tournament, which starts May 11. They also have put in a bid to host the East Region tournament at Yale.
