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Written by: Robbie LaBrie
After starting the season with a slew of games in Florida against both random and Northeast-10 opponents, the Falcons are back home playing their slate of Northeast-10 games and have come into midseason form.
Bentley got off to a shaky start in a pair of week-long trips to Florida in February and March, going 5-10 in their games split between Winter Park, Melbourne, St. Leo and Tampa, Florida.
Fortunately, a little home cooking has been the perfect remedy for Bentley, as they have gone 7-3 back in the Northeast playing against all conference opponents.
Overall, the Falcons’ record is currently 12-13, but their 7-3 conference record is good for third place in the NE-10 behind Southern Connecticut and Adelphi.
Offense has been the key to the Falcons’ success so far, averaging almost seven runs a game. Senior second baseman Charlie Pagliarulo has paced the offense this season with an astounding .392 batting average, second best in the Northeast-10.
Junior outfielder James Roche checks in at third in the NE-10 with a .354 batting average. Roche is Bentley’s main source of power, leading the NE-10 in slugging percentage (.698), RBI (27), home runs (7) and total bases (67).
Junior DH Chris Hardy and sophomore left fielder Mark Lane have enjoyed breakout seasons this year, with Lane being named NE-10 Player of the Week last week.Senior center fielder Brett Damato, who started the year off to a slow start, has come into the zone lately.
Damato has been a team leader for the Falcons for years and is hitting over .500 in his last five games, including three multi-hit games in that span.
The outfield has provided the Falcons with their share of sparks, but Bentley is also finding plenty of production from behind the plate in sophomore catcher Kevin Korwek, who has batted .292 in his first year as the Falcons’ backstop.
The Falcons’ pitching has done a nice job with the run support they are given to win ball games for the team. Junior ace Rob Finneran has paced the staff with a 5-1 record and 2.55 ERA in 53 innings pitched and seven starts, including four complete games.
Dan Murphy and John Yohe have also made six starts for Bentley, each pitching solid but only earning one win apiece. Dean Sandonato has been solid for the Falcons in relief, leading the team with 10 appearances and earning a 2-0 record.
After a rainout on March 16, the Falcons kicked off their run of conference games against Saint Anselm in Waltham with a 10-inning thriller that Bentley won 5-4. Korwek was the hero of this game, driving in the game-winning run.
The Falcons then travelled to Manchester to stomp Saint Anselm with their biggest offensive outburst of the season in an 18-5 game where the Falcons recorded 21 hits and four homers, paced by Damato, who homered twice and drove in five runs.
The Falcons then split a double header with Adelphi in Garden City, NY with a 6-2 win and a 7-3 loss, giving Bentley their first conference loss of the season.
Next, Bentley split a home and home series with UMass-Lowell on March 24 and 25. The first game, in Waltham, was an 11-7 loss, when the Falcons’ pitching struggled mightily despite UMass-Lowell’s mediocre offense.
In the next game, however, Finneran dominated, taking a no-hitter into the seventh and throwing a four-hit shut out on the way to a 5-0 Bentley victory.
The Falcons followed that up with an even better pitching gem by Dan Murphy, who rendered Pace helpless all night, tossing a two-hit shut out in an 8-0 Falcons win.
Bentley’s next contest was far from a shut out, but the offense still got the job done against Franklin Pierce as Hardy and Lane powered the Falcons to an 8-7 victory in Rindge, NH.
However, the three-game winning streak would come to a close in the Falcons’ next matchup with Franklin Pierce, as the Ravens executed a four-run top of the ninth to come back and seal the victory over the Falcons, 5-2.
Finneran made his next start in the following contest against Pace and only gave up two runs.
Freshman first baseman Lamarre Rey had a career game, driving in three runs, which would be enough for Bentley to earn a 5-2 win.
Now the Falcons are staring at a plate full of Northeast-10 games that should be hard fought and will probably define whether this team has what it takes to make a serious run at a conference title.
If Finneran and the offense holds up and the rest of the pitching staff comes together a bit more, you could be looking at a Bentley team ready to shine in the conference tournament and perhaps even garner a little national attention while they’re at it.
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