DUDLEY, Mass. – In its first two home games of the season, the Nichols baseball team scored 23 runs to sweep a doubleheader with Maine Farmington on Sunday afternoon. With the wins, the Bison improved to 4-13 (1-2 CCC), while the Beavers fell to 3-10 (0-0 NAC).
 
Nichols will hop back into Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action on Tuesday, April 4 when they travel to Springfield, Mass. to take on Western New England with the first pitch set for 3:30 p.m.
 
Nichols 7, Maine-Farmington 2
 
After a scoreless first two and a half innings, the Bison pushed a run across on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Luis Vargas, scoring Andrew Croteau. The Beavers tied the game up at one in the top of the fourth, but Nichols answered right back in the bottom half of the inning, as Johnny Knox doubled home two runs and Brennan Hyde followed it up with a two-RBI single of his own to make it a 5-1 ballgame.
 
The Bison added two more runs in the fifth on two hits and an error. The Beavers picked up a run in the sixth but starting pitcher Jack Kabel got a big strikeout to escape a bases-loaded jam in his final inning of work. Nichols turned to relievers Brandon Metivier and Salvatore D'Anna to record the final nine outs of the game as the two right-handers allowed just three hits and struck out six batters combined.
 
Kabel was stellar on the mound, tossing six innings, allowing just two runs (one earned), and striking out 11. Knox had a big game at the plate, going 4-4 with a walk and two RBI.
 
Nichols 15, Maine-Farmington 2
 
It was all Bison from the start as Knox smacked his first home run of the season to dead center for a two-run shot in the first inning. Nichols added two more runs in the first to take a 4-0 lead. In the bottom of the third inning, senior Jim Marasco cranked his first homer of the campaign to tack onto the lead.
 
The Beavers picked up two runs in the fifth, but Nichols answered right back, scoring five runs in the bottom half, three of which came off the bat of Brad Ellis for his first home run of the season, to extend their lead to 10-2. The Bison would add two more runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and one in the eighth to make it 15-2.
 
Marasco went 4-4 at the plate with two singles, a double, and the home run, picking up four RBI in the process. Sophomore Karl Miller collected three hits of his own in four at-bats. The Bison used seven starting pitchers in the win, limiting the Beavers to just seven hits while striking out 11.