University of Albany Advances to America East Baseball Championship Round With 10-9 Victory - UAlbany sports 2009

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Endicott, N.Y. – Mike Tirri drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth and Alexander Beaulieu earned his third save of the season in leading UAlbany to a 10-9 victory over Vermont in the loser’s bracket final of the America East Conference Baseball Tournament on Saturday at Pete Sylvester Field. The Great Danes advanced to the championship round against top-seed Binghamton. The tournament final was scheduled to start at 9:40 p.m.

UAlbany (26-30-1) used a three-run eighth inning to regain the lead. Ryan Gugel, who totaled a career-high four hits and two RBIs, doubled to center field to help load the bases with one out. Jim Banks dumped a run-scoring single down the left field line and Gugel tallied the tying run on a fielders’ choice play. Tirri, a freshman first baseman, put his team ahead, 10-9, with a line-drive single to right field.

Beaulieu had to work extra hard for his first two-inning save since March 23, 2007. The game was delayed 58 minutes in the top of the ninth due to lightning. Vermont’s Justin Milo lined a single up the box off Beaulieu’s thigh with one out. But the senior struck out first baseman Ethan Paquette looking and got Tom Kelly to fly out to the warning track in right field to end the elimination contest.

For the second consecutive tournament game, the Great Danes took a 7-1 lead into the middle innings. Brendan Rowland drilled a 1-1 pitch over the center-field fence, just left of the 410-foot sign, for his fourth home run of the season in the first. Pete Eichner doubled into the right-field corner in the second and later scored for a 3-0 advantage.

Gugel, a senior catcher, was involved in adding single runs in the third and fourth. Gugel singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He came across when Kyle Crean hit a bounding ball through the right side past a drawn in infield. Gugel lined a base hit to left field in the next inning to drive in another run.

UAlbany’s Sean Donovan singled with one out in the sixth to start a mild rally that produced a pair of runs. After Rowland singled, UVM left fielder Tom Kelly misfired with a throw to third base in an effort to get the lead runner. Donovan scored on that play and Gugel followed with an RBI single to right.

The Catamounts, who defeated Stony Brook, 13-11, in Friday’s elimination game, came back with a four-run uprising in the bottom the sixth. Vermont loaded the bases with no outs in chasing starter Josh Willimott from the mound. Matt Duffy and Kelly each had RBI singles, before Jeff Nolet’s sacrifice fly closed the gap to 7-5.

Vermont (23-33) went ahead, 9-7, in the seventh with another four-run frame. Paquette belted a two-run homer, his eighth of the season, to put his team in front for the first time in the contest. Dave Soltis, who collected four hits and three runs, led-off with an infield single and scored on Duffy’s sacrifice fly to center. Justin Milo ripped a run-scoring double into the left-field gap to draw his team even.