STANDISH — A sequel in the history of Arlo Pike and St. Joseph’s College baseball was written Wednesday.

From the Monks’ perspective, it wasn’t nearly as positive.

From 1984-87, Arlo Pike of Scarborough starred for St. Joseph’s. He was a 1986 NAIA All-American and is in the college’s athletic Hall of Fame. But 35 years later, his son, also named Arlo, led Southern Maine to a 12-0 win over the Monks in a nonconference meeting between the two perennially strong Division III programs.

The junior designated hitter, who played his high school baseball at nearby Bonny Eagle, went 2 for 3 with four RBI, including an opposite-field two-run home run that banged off the Larry Mahaney Diamond scoreboard in the fourth inning and pushed the lead to 8-0.

Pike’s father was a college teammate of St. Joseph’s Coach Will Sanborn.

“Growing up, always hearing that St. Joe’s is where I should go, knowing Coach Sanborn for awhile, it’s good to beat him. It feels good,” said Pike, who hit a grand slam on Tuesday in a 14-2 win against Husson.

Sanborn said he spoke to Pike’s father, “one of my best friends,” after the game. “I told him I was going to send him a bill for his son denting our scoreboard.”

USM has won four straight to raise its record to 8-12. The Huskies had significant roster turnover from the 2021 team that went 34-11 and was one win away from the NCAA Division III World Series. USM started the season 3-9, going 1-4 against teams ranked in the top 10.

“We haven’t recovered yet, but we’re heading that way,” said USM Coach Ed Flaherty.

“A lot of guys didn’t have a lot of experience and it’s been good to get everybody’s feet kind of wet and get everybody comfortable playing again, and I think this is what’s happening now,” said Pike, who also had an RBI double and drew a bases-loaded walk. “Everybody is feeling good and we’re playing our game now, having fun.”

Pike wasn’t the only USM player to have a feel-good day. Shortstop Janek Luksza of South Paris (Oxford Hills), who entered the game hitting .172, stroked three clean singles and drove in two runs. Cam Seymour of Saco (Thornton Academy) belted two doubles and just missed a home run on a long fly that was barely foul, showing the power that earned him second-team All-America honors in 2021, when he hit 14 homers as a freshman.

Starting pitcher Clay Robbins, a freshman from Auburn (Edward Little) who entered 0-3 with a 6.11 ERA, earned his first career win with 5 1/3 innings of three-hit ball. USM’s defense turned three double plays behind him.

“I’m still getting acclimated to college baseball for sure,” said Robbins, whose first college start was against 2021 national champion Salisbury. “We kind of knew we could get this going. We had confidence in our team. We’ve got great fielders behind us. We’re hitting the ball. We’re getting it rolling.”

In the late innings, both teams went to reserves. USM’s Colby Dexter made the defensive play of the game in the eighth with a full-speed diving catch in right-center. Lucas Francis of Lisbon, the only USM player to play all nine innings, took turns playing second, third and first base before pitching a clean ninth inning.

Little went right for St. Joseph’s (12-10), which had won six of its previous seven games and is tied for first in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference with a 5-1 mark. Its defense was particularly shaky, making five errors. In USM’s five-run third inning, four fly balls to left-center and center found the ground. While well-hit, at least three could have been caught. Instead, those flies became a two-base error, RBI doubles by Seymour and Pike and a triple for Jonathan Wilson in a five-run inning.

Eight Monks pitchers gave up 12 hits, walked six and hit five batters, while the St. Joe’s offense generated just four hits against Robbins, Dylan Miner, Nick Polizonis and Francis. But Sanborn said the game was a good learning experience, especially for a program that in addition to not playing in the 2020 season, had its 2021 season cut short before the regular-season ended because of a COVID shutdown.

“All those lessons about how to compete, how to grind through stuff, how to respond to disappointing losses, how to be tough mentally and physically, we’re still learning those things,” Sanborn said. “Overall, we didn’t play well today, but we’re playing better and better every week and we’re off to a pretty good start in the conference.”

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