AUBURNDALE, Fla. – UMass Dartmouth senior lefty Aaron Chouinard (Swansea, Mass.) hurled a complete-game, 7-2 victory over Endicott on Monday afternoon in the 2016 RussMatt Central Florida Invitational as the Gulls dropped to 1-2 on their spring break trip south. Chouinard scattered eight hits with one walk over his nine innings pitched while striking out six batters to lead the Corsairs.
UMD sophomore third baseman Josh O'Neill led the offense with three hits and two RBIs including a bunt single safety squeeze in the bottom of the second to put the Corsairs ahead 2-0. He would later add a RBI double in the bottom of the eighth as UMD added two insurance runs to their lead.
UMD also saw freshman right fielder Ryan Ainslie (Weymouth, Mass.) reach base three times with two hits and a walk, cross home plate three times, knock in a run, and swipe two bases out of the eight-hole.
For the Gulls, sophomore second baseman Michael DeDonato (Chelmsford, Mass.) drove a liner to centerfield for a sacrifice fly in the top of the third to score senior catcher Josh Drew (Intevale, N.H.), cutting UMD's early lead down to 2-1. Endicott's second run came off the bat of sophomore catcher Hunter Boyce (Bangor, Maine) who drove home freshman first baseman Chris Seidl (Dracut, Mass.) who had doubled and advanced to third on a groundout by Nick Berno (St. Albans, Vt.) before scoring on Boyce's hit.
On the mound, sophomore righty Owen Bautze (Sudbury, Mass.) lasted five innings before giving way to junior left-hander Luke Morse (Westford, Mass.) who threw two shutout innings with a strikeout. Freshman reliever Kyle Wollman (East Berlin, Conn.) also made his first collegiate appearance in the loss.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Today was the seventh all-time meeting between Endicott and UMass Dartmouth. The Gulls dropped to 5-2 all-time.
- Five of Endicott's seven games against UMD have been at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. Today was Endicott's first loss to the Corsairs down in Florida (4-1).
- Seniors Cody Hall (Rutland, Mass.) and Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) were the only Gulls will multi-hit games against Chouinard.
FOR THE FOES
- The 7-8-9 batters in the UMD lineup combined to go 6-for-8 with four runs scored, three RBI, three walks, with three stolen bases.
- Junior first baseman Taylor Cacciola (West Greenwich, R.I.) joined Ainslie and O'Neill with multiple hits in the win. He went 2-for-4 with a run scored and a RBI double in the bottom of the third.
- This is Chouinard's second complete game, nine-inning victory over Endicott after beating the Gulls 4-3 on April 26, 2015 in Beverly.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (2-2) takes on NCAA Division III's No. 1 ranked team in Cortland State (12-0), the defending national champs. Cortland is currently 4-0 down at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational including a narrow 4-3 win over No. 2 UW-La Crosse and a high-octane 22-20 victory over Rutgers-Camden this afternoon.
