PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – The Saint Anselm baseball team picked up two big wins today in a doubleheader sweep at Pace University.  The Hawks cruised to a 14-2 victory in game one, then finished out the sweep with a 9-5 defeat of the Setters in game two.  The Hawks had six batters hit at least .400 on the day and the team hit .350 overall, while holding their opponents to just .239.  The Hawks improve to 7-18 (5-9 NE-10), while the Setter fall to 8-20 (4-12 NE-10).

Game 1: Saint Anselm 14, Pace 2
The Hawks opened the scoring in the second inning of game one.  Matt Sucharewicz (Peabody, Mass.) led off the inning with a walk.  Robert Kelly (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) traded places with him on the base paths, as he grounded to the first baseman for a force play.  James Garrigan (Plymouth, Mass.) got hit by a pitch, and Daniel DeCoste (Chelmsford, Mass.) loaded the bases with a single through the right side.  Rett Ostafin (Avon, Conn.) then got the first RBI of the day, putting the ball in play to shortstop and driving in Kelly.

Third baseman Kyle Turnier tried to get things going for the Setters in the bottom of the third, getting on base with a single to left field.  However, catcher Matt Sucharewicz threw him out on his way to steal second base, to stifle the Setters' momentum, and Mike Torello then flew out to right to end the inning.  Vinny Dammann started things up again in the bottom of the fourth, drawing a leadoff walk.  Tyler Hart moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt, and Laurence Flammia made it first and third with a single to left.  Kenny Wright then picked up the game-tying RBI, driving home Dammann with a ground ball to second.

After the first two batters of the inning were retired, Mike Garczynski (Fort Myers, Fla.) kept the top of the fifth alive with a two-out walk.  TJ Murphy (Reading, Mass.) moved him over with a single through the left side, and Matt Stone (West Roxbury, Mass.) put the Hawks back on top with an RBI double.  Matt Sucharewicz then stepped up to plate.  The Hawk junior dug in and smashed a bomb over the wall in left-center for a three-run homer and a 5-1 Hawk lead.

Hawk starter Neil Hesek (Northboro, Mass.) did not allow a runner past first base through his remaining three innings, and in the top of the seventh, the Hawks struck again.  After Steven Panza (Watertown, Mass.) popped up to second, Garczynski got on due to an error by shortstop Laurence Flammia.  Murphy flew out to right for the second out of the inning, but Stone kept the Hawks alive with a single to left and advanced to second the throw to the plate preventing Garczynski from scoring.  Sucharewicz then came through in the clutch once again, hitting a two-out, two-RBI double to give the Hawks a 7-1 lead.

The Hawks' offense did not back down in the top of the eighth, as Garrigan led off with a single up the middle.  Steven D'Angelo, who relieved starter Mike Sciarretta at the beginning of the inning, then walked DeCoste and Ostafin to load the bases, and Panza hit an RBI single up the middle.  Garczynski drew a bases-loaded walk to score DeCoste, and Murphy got an infield single for an RBI.  Stone, Sucharewicz and Kelly kept the streak going with RBI singles before pinch-hitter Joshua Lafond (Goffstown, N.H.) struck out for the first out of the inning.  Pinch-hitter Eric Simm (Salem, N.H.) then scored Stone with a ground out to pitcher Neil Pezzullo, and Rett Ostafin flew out to center to end the inning, but not before the Hawks scored seven runs to go up 14-1.

Bret Bartlett (Duxbury, Mass.) retired the Setters in order in the bottom of the eighth and then struck out the first two batters of the ninth before walking pinch-hitter Elliot Johnson.  Mike Fantini (Haverhill, Mass.) then came in to get the final out, but walked his first batter, JJ Conrad.  Fantini then allowed an RBI single to Michael Rodriguez before drawing a ground out from Chris Spatkowski for the final out of the game.

Hawk starter Neil Hesek pitched seven strong innings for the Hawks, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out three.  Bret Bartlett allowed the second run on no hits but one walk and also struck out three in 1.2 innings, and Mike Fantini allowed a hit and a walk in 0.1 innings.

Mike Sciarretta allowed the first seven runs, five earned, on nine hits and three walks in seven innings.  Steven D'Angelo allowed the other seven runs on five hits and three walks without recording an out.  Neil Pezzullo allowed the final hit of the eighth inning before retiring three straight batters, and Patrick Chaputian allowed a hit and a walk in the top of the ninth.

Every Saint Anselm starter scored a run in the game. Five Hawks had multi-hit games, and the 2-4 batters, Murphy, Stone and Sucharewicz, combined to go 9-for-13 with two doubles, a homerun, three walks, five runs and nine RBI.

Game 2: Saint Anselm 9, Pace 5
Both team's starters began game two with 1-2-3 first innings, striking out two of their first three batters.  Matt Sucharewicz was hit by a pitch to start the second inning as the first base-runner of the game, but nothing became of it.  Vinny Dammann led off with a single to left field in the bottom of the second, but he was stranded on base as well.

In the top of the third, Rett Ostafin shook things up with a leadoff double to left.  Steven Panza struck out, but Richie Manzi (Plymouth, N.H.) made it first and third with a single down the right-field line.  TJ Murphy then stepped up to the plate and smashed a three-run homer over the wall in left field to give the Hawks an early 3-0 lead.  In the top of the fourth, Rett Ostafin got on base again with a one-out single.  Panza got hit by a pitch and Manzi drove in Ostafin with an RBI single.

Hawk starter Sean Hayden (Haverhill, Mass.) walked the first two batters in the bottom of the fifth.  Chris Spatkowski made it second and third with a ground out to Hayden, who then struck out Turnier for the second out.  However, Mike Torello then drove in JJ Conrad with an RBI single to short to put the Setters on the board with their first run.

Daniel DeCoste led off the top of the sixth with a single.  Eric Baca (Franklin, N.H.) followed him with another hit to center, and Rett Ostafin loaded the bases with a bunt single.  Mackenzie King threw a wild pitch, shifting everyone up a base and allowing DeCoste to score.  Steven Panza then walked to reload the bases, and another wild pitch advanced all the runners, scoring Baca.  King managed to get Manzi and Murphy out without allowing the runners to move up, but Matt Stone then hit a two-out two-RBI single to put the Hawks up 8-1 before King struck out Sucharewicz to end the inning.

Kyle Lavin (Shelton, Conn.) relieved Hayden in the bottom of the sixth and threw a 1-2-3 inning.  However, he allowed a leadoff double to JJ Conrad to start the bottom of the seventh.  Steven Sterlacci made it first and third with a single to left and Spatkowski drove in Conrad with a single up the middle.  Robert Horn then came up to pinch hit for Turnier.  Horn hit a grounder to third base.  DeCoste forced out Spatkowski, but Panza overthrew first in an attempt to turn the double play, which allowed Sterlacci to score and Horn to get to second.  Mike Torello then hit an RBI double to center, scoring Horn, before Lavin retired the final two batters.  Eric Simm (Salem, N.H.) started the bottom of the eighth inning, but allowed two walks and a single to the first three batters before being replaced by Mike Fantini. Fantini got Sterlacci to ground into a double play and then struck out Spatkowski to end the inning, but leadoff batter Kenny Wright was able to score on the double play.

Matt Sucharewicz led off the top of the ninth inning by getting hit by a pitch.  Garrigan traded places with him on a grounder to short and then stole second to get into scoring position.  DeCoste moved him over to third, and Baca drove him in with a single through the left side, to make it 9-5 heading into the final half inning.

Horn led off the bottom of the ninth with a double down the left-field line.  However, Fantini retired the next three batters without allowing the ball to get out of the infield, stranding Horn on third, and closing out the Hawks' first doubleheader sweep of the season.

Hawk starter Sean Hayden picked up his first win of the season, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out seven in five innings.  Kyle Lavin's scoreless streak came to an end at 11.0 innings, as he allowed three runs, one earned, on four hits in two innings.  Eric Simm allowed a hit, two walks and a run and did not record an out, and Mike Fantini allowed just one hit while striking out two in the final two innings.

Mackenzie King allowed eight runs on 10 hits while striking out four in 5.2 innings.  Mike Mastrogiovanni struck out two batters in 1.1 innings.  Patrick Maher allowed a hit in the eighth, and Kyle Henriksen gave up a hit and a run in the ninth.

Once again, every Hawk batter reached base in the game.  Rett Ostafin got on base in all five plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a double, three runs, and getting hit by a pitch twice.  Richie Manzi, TJ Murphy and Eric Baca each went 2-for-5 with a run and at least one RBI.

The Hawks return to action tomorrow, when they head to Merrimack College for a Northeast-10 doubleheader beginning at noon.  Be sure to follow the action live online via livestats.