Shank outstanding again, fanning 14 in eight innings to improve to 3-1

WALTHAM, Mass. (March 29, 2002) - Junior right-hander Chris Shank (Westminster, Mass./Oakmont Regional) was dominant again as he led Franklin Pierce University
to a 9-1 victory over Bentley College in the Northeast-10 Conference baseball opener for both at DeFelice Field this afternoon.

Shank (3-1) struck out the first six batters he faced and retired the first ten batters overall before surrendering a bloop single to Bentley junior Jamie Gath with one out in the fourth inning. Shank allowed just one earned run on five hits with a season-high 14 strikeouts (one shy of his career high) and just one walk (which came in the eighth inning) in eight innings of work.

Freshman Eric Cavers (Otisfield, Maine/Oxford Hills) sparked the Franklin Pierce offense as he batted three-for-four with two runs scored, a triple, one RBI and two stolen bases.

SeniorScott Loiseau (Worcester, Mass./St. Peter Marian) returned to the Franklin Pierce
lineup after missing the last four games after he suffered a concussion when he was beaned by a pitch during the Ravens spring trip to Arizona last week. He batted 2-4 with an infield single in his first at bat of the day and a double. Sophomore Dante Blancarte (Amesbury, Mass./Amesbury) also added two hits, including a double and an RBI.

Franklin Pierce jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first as junior Dan Close (Leominster, Mass./Leominster) sparked the Ravens with a two-run homer to deep left field and Cavers followed with an RBI triple after classmate Bear Dunn (Charlton, Mass./Shepherd Hills) singled.

Franklin Pierce struck for an unearned run on a sacrifice fly by junior Al Medeiros (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) that scored Cavers in the fourth. The Ravens broke the game open in the sixth with four more runs. Junior Paul McAuliffe (Foxboro, Mass./Foxboro) drilled a bases-loaded double to left-centerfield that cleared the bags and Blancarte drove in McAuliffe with a double of his own one batter later.

Bentley got its lone run of the game in the top of the seventh as senior Kevin Lyons smacked a leadoff homer to leftfield to extend his hitting streak to 20 games.

Senior leftfielder Myles Dudley was the lone Falcon with two hits. Classmate Mike Anderson suffered the loss (1-1) as he yielded eight runs, seven earned, on 11 hits with one strikeout and two walks in 5.1 innings of work.

Franklin Pierce (5-6, 1-0 NE-10) returns to action tomorrow afternoon for a Conference doubleheader at Stonehill College at noon. Bentley (3-4, 0-1 NE-10) travels to West Haven, Conn., tomorrow to face the University of New Haven.