Worcester, Mass. (April 14) -- On Tuesday afternoon at Rocheleau Field, the Assumption College baseball team dropped a 12-6 Northeast-10 divisional final to visiting Stonehill College. The game is the first of three divisional contests that the two teams will play this season.

Stonehill struck for three runs in the first inning as the Skyhawks put together a four-hit frame that included three straight to open the game. The Hounds answered in the bottom of the second with a single run as freshman Bryan Guerrero (Boston, Mass./Catholic Memorial) singled up the middle with two outs to score senior Kelvin Sims (Manchester, Conn./East Catholic) from second to make it 3-1. Sims had reached earlier in the inning on a two-out single to left field before advancing to second on a passed ball.

The Hounds took the lead with a three-run third behind RBI hits from sophomore Mike Coggeshall (Shrewsbury, Mass./Shrewsbury) and senior Greg O'Donnell (Northbridge, Mass./Northbridge). Scoring in the inning was junior Michael Panza (West Haven, Conn./Notre Dame), Coggeshall and O'Donnell to put Assumption up 4-3 after three. O'Donnell crossed with the go-ahead run as he came home on a wild pitch for the final run of the inning.

Freshman Rob Gambale (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial) came on in relief of junior pitcher Ronny Sampson (Jefferson, Mass./West Boylston) in the fifth with two runners on. The Skyhawks put together a three-run inning to regain the advantage at 6-4 after the top of the fifth, followed by a two-run sixth that stretched the lead to 8-4. Trailing 10-4 heading to the bottom of the eighth after a pair of RBI's by Brian Hocking, Assumption plated a pair in the inning for the 10-6 margin. Junior Tom Paine (Upton, Mass./Nipmuc) drove in sophomore Matt Murphy (Wakefield, R.I./Bishop Hendricken) from third, followed by a two-out single to right that scored Panza.

The Skyhawks scored twice in the top of the ninth to round out the scoring, en route to the 12-6 final as Stonehill picked up 17 hits in the game.

Sampson went four innings in his first start of the season, taking the loss to fall to 0-1 overall. For Stonehill, Patrick Nicholson improved to a perfect 5-0 after he threw eight innings and scattered eight hits with four strikeouts.

O'Donnell and Murphy each picked up a pair of hits, with O'Donnell extending his hitting streak to 11 games.

With the loss, Assumption falls to 8-17 overall and 4-4 in divisional action, while Stonehill improves to 19-9-1 overall and 6-3 in the division.

Assumption is back in action on Wednesday afternoon as the Hounds host Saint Anselm College for a 3:30 p.m. start at Rocheleau Field.

For the latest on Assumption College Athletics, follow the Hounds via social media on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more information, contact the Office of Athletic Communications at 508-767-7240.