Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 GAME 1 BOX SCORE | GAME 2 BOX SCORE
When and Where: May 4, 2018 – Hooksett, N.H. (Penmen Field)
Game 1 Score: Southern New Hampshire University 15, Assumption College 2
Game 2 Score: Southern New Hampshire University 15, Assumption College 2
Records: SNHU 33-13 (19-6 NE10, 18-3 NE10 NE), Assumption 17-28-2 (11-16-2 NE10, 8-12-1 NE10 NE)
Fourteen Penmen scored a run, as the Southern New Hampshire University baseball team recorded a pair of 15-2 victories over Assumption College on Friday at Penmen Field, as the team capped its regular-season home slate on Senior Day.
Graduate student Taylor Olmstead (Greenwich, Conn.) was 4-for-7 with an RBI and two runs scored in the doubleheader, with fellow grad student Thomas Buonopane (Peabody, Mass.) going 3-for-7 with a pair of RBI and scoring three times. Senior Kyle Pangallo (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) went 2-for-5 with a walk, two RBI and three runs scored, while classmate Caleb Potter (Mentor, Ohio) finished 3-for-8 with a walk, home run, four RBI and three runs scored.
Southern New Hampshire struck right away in the first game, as sophomore Tom Blandini (Bow, N.H.) led off the opening frame with a double down the right field line before moving to third on a ground out and eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly to right from redshirt-senior Ryan Sullivan (Hopkinton, Mass.).
Assumption grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Jake Byrne hit a two-run homer to left off grad student Andrew Lalonde (Bedford, N.H.), but the Penmen responded with seven runs in the fifth inning. Another Blandini double tied the game, with redshirt-sophomore Joshua Goldstein (Haverhill, Mass.) scoring on a wild pitch to put SNHU up, 3-2. After Buonopane stroked an RBI double to center to add another run, Sullivan reached on an error and freshman Dakota Mulcay (Goffstown, N.H.) drew a walk to load the bases, with Potter delivering the big blow on a grand slam that stretched the lead to 8-2.
A three-run shot off the bat of sophomore Ethan Harris (Middleton, Mass.) in the seventh broke it open at 11-2, before the Penmen added four more in the eighth. An RBI groundout from Blandini plated the first run, with Buonopane following with a single to center before Sullivan delivered an RBI double down the right field line and Mulcay collected a two run-double to left-center to cap the scoring.
Potter (walk, four RBI, two runs) and Olmstead were both 2-for-4, while Blandini (two RBI, two runs) and Buonopane (RBI, two runs) went 2-for-5. Mulcay (two walks, two RBI, two runs) and Pangallo (walk, two runs) both finished 1-for-3, with Harris (three RBI, run) and Sullivan (two RBI, two runs) each going 1-for-4.
Lalonde (5-3) allowed just the two runs on four hits over seven innings, striking out four and not walking a batter. Junior Hayden Manning (Portland, Conn.) worked a perfect eighth, with senior Ivon Clough (Dublin, N.H.), and redshirt-juniors Dylan Sbordone (Newton, Mass., strikeout) and Cameron Scotia (Dudley, Mass.; strikeout, walk) each recording an out in the ninth.
In game two, sac flies from Buonopane in the third and Pangallo in the fifth build the Penmen a 2-0 lead. They would send 14 batters to the plate in the sixth inning, taking advantage of five hits, two walks and four errors to push across eight runs. Mulcay's two-run base hit started the party, with RBI doubles from junior Joshua Zbierski (Stafford Springs, Conn.) and Pangallo, along with a run-scoring single by Olmstead, a double-steal, a Goldstein RBI groundout and an error making it 10-0.
SNHU kept the runs coming, as a two-run triple to right from sophomore Jake Coro (Johnston, R.I.) and an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Sullivan stretched the lead to 13-0 in the seventh. Zbierski and Blandini added RBI singles in the eighth to make it a 15-run game, with Assumption tacking on a pair in the ninth.
Pangallo (two RBI, run) and Buonopane (RBI, run) were each 1-for-2, with Olmstead turning in a 2-for-3 performance with an RBI and two runs scored. Zbierski went 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBI and a run, while Goldstein (RBI, run) and Mulcay (walk, two RBI, run) were 1-for-3. Sullivan (walk, RBI, run) and Potter (run) both went 1-for-4.
Junior Endy Morales (Holyoke, Mass.) walked one and struck out a batter over a hitless inning-and-two-thirds before being forced to leave the game. Classmate Matthew Messier (No. Troy, Vt.) was big in relief, tossing four-and-a-third scoreless frames, while allowing a pair of hits, striking out four and walking one. Redshirt-freshman Zachary Merchant (Lunenburg, Mass.) fanned a pair, while allowing a hit in a shutout seventh, with freshman Jeffrey Praml (Bridgewater, N.J.) working around an error in an otherwise-perfect eighth. Sophomore Nick Artymowicz (Seaville, N.J.) relinquished two runs on two hits in the ninth, walking one and striking out one.
Notes:
- The Penmen have now won 22 of 27, including 14 of 15 and six straight.
- SNHU is outscoring opponents 144-36 over its last 15 contests.
- Southern New Hampshire is now 14-2 at home this season and improves to 73-15 (.830) at Penmen Field since the start of the 2014 season.
- Potter's home run was his team-leading ninth of the season and the 15th of his career, while Harris' long-ball was the first of his career.
- Potter extended his hitting streak to eight games.
- Lalonde has won three of his last four decisions.
- Over his last five appearances out of the bullpen, Messier is 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA, allowing just three runs on 11 hits over 14 innings, while submitting an 18-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
- Olmstead, Buonopane, Pangallo, Potter, Sullivan, Lalonde, Clough, Sbordone, senior Mitchell Powers (Portland, Maine), redshirt-senior Jake Stearns (Plymouth, Mass.) and grad student Shane McDonald (Blue Point, N.Y.) were all honored in a Senior Day ceremony prior to the opener.
Up Next:
The Penmen return to action Sunday, May 6 (1 p.m.) when they wrap up the regular season at Adelphi University. Top-seeded SNHU is back home Tuesday, May 8 (6 p.m.) when it plays host to fourth-seeded Bentley University in the first round of the Northeast-10 Championship at Penmen Field.
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