Local college notes

Men's basketball

• Mike Quinn of Oakdale scored eight points Sunday night as Bentley beat Merrimack 83-79 to advance to the NCAA Division II East Regional championship game. Bentley played Philadelphia University Monday night at Easton, Mass., for a spot in the Elite Eight.

Quinn, a 2005 Montville High graduate, went on to play for his father, Jere, at St. Thomas More before moving on to Bentley. The junior guard leads the team with 54 3-pointers and is averaging 8.4 points per game with 100 assists.

College baseball

• Montville's Taylor Lewis is leading the University of Maine with a .419 batting average through the first 15 games. The sophomore outfielder has scored 17 runs, driven in 19 and is perfect in four stolen base attempts for the 7-8 Black Bears. He has two doubles, six triples and a home run. Against Penn on March 7, the Montville High graduate was 5-for-5 with two triples, a homer and five runs scored.

• Anthony Giansanti, another Montville High graduate, is off to a strong start in his senior season at Siena. The senior outfielder/third baseman is batting .354 for the 4-11 Saints with 15 runs scored and six RBI. He is 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts. Giansanti was drafted in the 49th round of last year's amateur draft, but returned for his senior year.

• Three local players are on the roster at Western Connecticut, which is coached by Waterford native John Susi. Anthony Ruffo (St. Bernard) and Josh Murray (NFA), both sophomores from Norwich, and senior shortstop Sam McNeil of Gales Ferry (Ledyard) play for the Colonials.

Susi, who is in his 11th season, was the head coach at Montville High and an assistant at Waterford High and for the New London American Legion program.

• Plymouth State (N.H.), a Division III school and a member of the Little East Conference, has a distinct local flavor as it prepares to open its season on Saturday in Florida. Junior Grant Livingston (St. Bernard) will start at shortstop, freshman Rew Wilson (East Lyme) will start at third, junior Dan Eagan (St. Bernard) will be the starting catcher and junior Matt Malia (New London) is vying for a starting job in the outfield.

College softball

• Three Eastern Connecticut Conference products have each started in all 15 games this season for UConn. Freshman outfielder Brittany Duclos, the former Fitch standout, is batting .261 with seven runs scored, six RBI, a double and a home run. Junior shortstop Jessica Arremony of Griswold has driven in two runs and stolen two bases and sophomore utility player Jen Ward of Waterford has scored three runs and is perfect in four stolen base attempts. Waterford native Karen Mullins is in her 27th season as the head coach for the Huskies (6-9) and Ledyard's Ellen Mahoney, who led the Colonels to seven state titles, is in her 14th year as an assistant.

• Three more former ECC players will play prominent roles for Western Connecticut, a Division III school and a member of the Little East. Junior Brittany Connors (Waterford) is battling for the No. 2 spot in the pitching rotation, junior Anna Levesque (Waterford) will see time behind the plate and junior Luigina Facchini (NFA) will start in left field.

• Central Connecticut's Macy Stefanski, a freshman from Montville, was named both the Northeast Conference player and rookie of the week. The infielder led CCSU to a 3-1 record at the Lady Pirates Classic in Hampton, Va., hitting her first collegiate home run while adding two doubles and 11 total bases. She finished the week with a .600 batting average and .600 on-base percentage.

Women's lacrosse

• Mystic's Devyn Frank, a freshman goaltender from Fitch, has won the first two games of her collegiate career for Mount Ida College of Newton, Mass. The Mustangs, a first-year program and members of the Division III Great Northeast Athletic Conference, have beaten Anna Maria (19-4) and Pine Manor (19-3).

- Day Staff Reports