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Wednesday, March 5, 2008
GILBLAIR STYMIES STEVENS TECH FOR 20TH CAREER WIN
Lefty needs only 28 career appearances and 23 decisions to reach milestone
HOBOKEN, N.J. – Junior left-handed pitcher Shawn Gilblair (Windham) pitched six shutout innings in a starting role to achieve his 20th career victory in a 9-1 baseball win over Stevens Tech Wednesday afternoon at Dobbelaar Field.
At left: Shawn Gilblair
Gilblair (1-0) needed only 28 career appearances (23 starts) to become the 11th pitcher in program history to attain 20 victories. Last year’s NCAA Division III National Player-of-the-Year and Little East Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year, Gilblair is 20-3 lifetime with a 1.90 ERA in 175 1/3 innings. He has 172 strikeouts and 23 walks. All but one of his career wins have come in a starting role.
In six innings, Gilblair allowed only three baserunners while fanning eight and walking one. Two runners reached in the first without a hit, but Gilblair fanned two to keep Stevens (2-5) off the board. Gilblair gave up a single to Eddie Daniele leading off the third but the inning ended when Daniele was thrown out trying to score from second on a ground ball to Eastern (1-1) freshman first baseman Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, MA). Gilblair was lifted in favor of sophomore righty Matt Fontaine (Cranston, RI) after striking out the side in the sixth.
In all, three Eastern pitchers combined on a two-hitter, fanned 13 and walked two. In two games this year, Eastern pitchers have now fanned 15 and walked only two.
First-year players collected half of Eastern’s 16 hits: first-year sophomore catcher Chris Wojick (Uncasville) and freshmen Dewing, rightfielders Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, NY), and Andrew Dyer (Topsfield, MA), and third baseman Pat Smith (Milford, PA). Dewing and Schult each had two hits (including one double each), Dewing scoring twice and driving in a run and Schult driving in two runs. They were the first collegiate hits for Dyer, Smith and Wojick. Wojick caught the first eight innings, then closed out the win by fanning one in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Eastern visits SUNY Old Westbury Saturday at 1 p.m.
Eastern Conn. 9, Stevens Tech 1
Eastern Conn. (1-1) 000 102 204 -- 9 16 1
Stevens Tech (2-5) 000 000 100 -- 1 2 3
Shawn Gilblair (1-0), Matt Fontaine (7), Chris Wojick (9) and Wojick, Andrew Magliola (9). Joe Finora (0-2), Scott Picerno (7), Alex Sota (8), Craig Kinmon (9) and Denis Ackermann. 2B-Andrew Dewing, Jim Schult, Wojick (E).
