Photo courtesy of Castleton Sports

The Castleton Spartans baseball team took their brooms to Bangor Maine this past weekend earning a comforting double-header sweep over conference opponents, the Husson Eagles.

With the two wins, the Spartans move to 28-7 overall and 19-3 in conference play. The Eagles fall to 21-15 and 13-9 in conference play.

Much of the Spartans success in game one was due to strong pitching and consistent hitting from the bottom of their lineup.

Senior Michael LaBeau pitched seven strong innings, giving up five hits and one run and punching out eight batters in the process on the way to his fifth win of the season. Labeau continues to dominate and is ranked nationally with an earned run average of 1.10

The Spartans eight and nine hitters combined to go 5 for 6 scoring 5 of their 6 runs in their 6-1 victory in game one.

“The bottom of the lineup came up big this weekend. They had timely hits that helped us score and did a really good job of putting the ball in play,” said sophomore third baseman Mitchell Caron.

Strong pitching carried the Spartans in game two Saturday afternoon as senior Luke Salerno took the mound. Salerno matched teammate LeBaeu, giving up one earned run on five hits and recording seven strikeouts in their 2-1 tightly contested victory.

“Our pitching was really what put us above Husson. Our pitchers did a great job of keeping guys off base and keeping us in games, giving us chances to push across runs when we needed,” said Caron.

After four scoreless innings, the Eagles got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Spartans answered in the sixth as Davis Mikell doubled to right center field, scoring Caron to tie the game.

Salerno returned to the mound for a quick 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth. In the top of the seventh, the Spartans grabbed the lead when junior Josh Rylant singled up the middle scoring Matt Jackson.

The Eagles were given the chance to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, but failed to do so leaving the tying run on second base and Salerno picked up his sixth win of the season, bringing his overall record to a perfect 6-0.

“Pitching carried our team in both games. We got the big hits when we needed and we shut them down on defense when we needed,” said junior Ryan Wadsworth.

The Spartans remain well in front in the NAC and look to carry out the rest of the season with tournament play right around the corner.