DUBOIS, Penn.—The Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) baseball program wrapped up its 2022 season at the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Small College World Series on Tuesday, May 17—the program’s fifth ever appearance at the tournament.
#8 Mid Atlantic Christian: W, 8-6 [BOX]
Trailing 4-0 in the bottom half of the third inning, first-year Justin Colon (Aguada, Puerto Rico) connected for a three-run homerun to close the deficit. After surrendering two more runs in the sixth inning, SMCC put together a comeback five-run inning that featured a RBI-single by first-year Cameren Cousins (Wells, Maine) and a grand slam off the bat of first-year Gabriel Rivera (Caguas, Puerto Rico).
First-year Ronin Tachibana (Kennebunk, Maine) pitched the fifth and sixth innings to pick up the win; first-year Anthony Sayers (Benoni, South Africa) recorded his USCAA-leading fifth save of the season.
#1 Penn State DuBois: L, 10-3 [BOX]
Colon got things going again for the SMCC offense with his seventh home run of the year, a solo shot to right-center in the first inning. SeaWolves’ pitching was tagged with back-to-back five-run innings to the host Lions—their only damage of the game.
Sayers added a homer in the third inning and first-year Derek Hoh (Methuen, Mass.) crossed home plate in the fifth to account for all of the production.
#7 Bucks County Community College: L, 7-4 [BOX]
First-year Michael O’Brien (Franklin, Mass.) delivered a RBI-single in the second inning to close the gap 2-1. Bucks County posted one run in the third and two more in the fourth before Colon and Sayers answered the bell with RBIs in the fifth. The SeaWolves went quiet in the sixth and seventh innings and suffered elimination from the tournament.
Colon was voted a First Team All-American and six earned Academic All-American status—Logan Burt, Tyler Apodaca, Bobby Henline, Cameren Cousins, Alex Grabowski, and Anthony Sayers.
Head Coach Nic Lops expressed, “I thought our guys showed a special type of resilience against the top talents in the country! To pick up a win at the tournament was something the program hadn’t done since 2011. The goal is to build on the achievement with another run next season!”
The SeaWolves conclude their season 25-13, 7-1 in conference play.
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