Baseball Edged by Bentley 3-1 in Home Opener

NORTH ANDOVER, MA - In the home and conference opener, Brett Fistes threw a complete game, seven-hitter as Bentley defeated the Merrimack baseball team 3-1 Tuesday afternoon at a chilly Warrior Field.

Fistes battled Ryan Pinette (Norwood, MA), who was coming off a no-hitter in his last start on Friday. Pinette allowed two runs in eight innings, as last week’s Northeast-10 Pitcher of the Week fell to 2-1 on the season.

The Falcons struck first as Chris Hardy scored in the third off a sacrifice fly off the bat of catcher Mike DeCoste.

But Merrimack countered in its half of the third as 1B Mike Dooling (Milford, CT) led off the inning with a single and came around to score on a one-out single from LF PJ Farnham (Andover, MA).

Hardy drove home the go-ahead run in the fifth, hitting a sacrifice fly to left that plated Garrett Stenhouse to give the visitors the 2-1 lead. Bentley then added a run in the ninth off reliever Ryan McNeill (Lynnfield, MA) on an infield single that scored Stenhouse.

That was enough for Fistes who struck out five, while improving to 2-2 on the year.

Six Warriors had hits on the day, including Dooling, who had a pair of hits.

Merrimack (9-5, 0-1 NE-10) visits Bentley for a non-conference game Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., before concluding the three-game set with a conference game at Bentley Thursday at 3:30 p.m.