STOCKTON TOPS MOUNT ST. MARY 6-2 IN ECAC GAME

Dan McGuckin

Boxscore

Fourth-seeded Richard Stockton (21-17) defeated fifth-seeded Mount St. Mary (NY) (21-18) 6-2 in the first round of the ECAC Metro tournament.

Dan McGuckin (Sicklerville/Winslow Twp.) led the Ospreys, going 2-5 with two stolen bases, a run scored and an RBI. With the win, Stockton advanced to the ECAC Metro semifinals at top-seeded Stevens on Saturday.

Barry Larro (Cedarville/Cumberland) went 1-4 with a double, stolen base and a run scored for the Ospreys. Larro extended streaks of reaching base to 22 consecutive games and hitting to 12 straight. Nine Stockton players registered at least one hit in the game and the Ospreys stole five bases.

For Mount St. Mary, Chris Chieffo went 2-4 with a double and Paul Cherubino was 2-4 with an RBI. Cherubino stroked an RBI single in the top of the first to give the Knights a short-lived 1-0 lead.

Stockton answered with two runs in the bottom half. Larro led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by McGuckin, who was singled home by Justin Gordon (Brick/Brick Memorial) two batters later to put the Ospreys on top 2-1.

Mount St. Mary tied the game 2-2 with a run in the top of the second. Brandon Lubrano led off with single, advanced to second on an error and eventually scored an unearned run on a sacrifice fly by Michael Matuk.

Stockton took the lead for good with a run in the bottom of the second. Andy Oliver (Penns Grove/Penns Grove) singled, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Mike Bush (Manahawkin/Southern). The Ospreys capitalized on three errors to score two unearned runs in the seventh inning, one each by Gordon and Travis Marra (Toms River/TR East), to break the game open at 5-2.

Mike Wasco (Riverside/Riverside) singled in a run in the bottom of the eighth to extend his reached-base streak to 17 consecutive games and produce the final run of the 6-2 Stockton victory.

Winning pitcher Bryan Frank (Toms River/TR East) allowed two runs (one unearned) on seven hits in five innings to improve to 5-2 on the season. Mark Crescenzi (Penns Grove/ Penns Grove) came on with Stockton leading 3-2 and pitched four scoreless innings, fanning seven in the process, for a save.

Stockton will travel to Stevens to face the top-seeded Ducks in the ECAC Metro semifinals on Saturday at noon. The ECAC championship game is slated for Sunday at 2 pm.