MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College baseball team posted a 16-3 loss to Assumption University on Wednesday in Northeast-10 Conference play.
The Hawks fall to 10-12 overall on the season and to 5-10 against NE10 opponents. The Greyhounds move to 7-8 in both the league and on the season, defeating the Hawks for the third time in 2021. Saint Anselm returns to action Saturday, May 1 with a four-game set at Stonehill.
Sophomore Brady Doran (Stony Brook, N.Y.) hit his league-leading eighth home run of the season and freshman Zack Clough (Newbury, Mass.) homered for the first time in his career, but the Hawks conceded 19 hits to an aggressive Assumption offense in the contest.
The Hawks entered the day with an NE10-leading 32 home runs and tacked two on to that total, giving them 34 which stands as the fourth-most in a single season in team annals. The all-time record of 45 home runs was set during the 2001 season; no Hawks team had hit more than 30 home runs since the 2002 campaign.
With the Hawks batting as the designated visiting team, Doran led off the game by homering on the very first pitch of the game by Assumption starter Cole Chudoba. The Greyhounds used a different pitcher in each inning and the strategy appeared to backfire early as in the second inning, junior Dan Baker (Reading, Mass.) doubled down the left field line to drive in a run.
The Greyhounds punished the Hawks in the "home" half of the second inning, scoring five unearned runs after a Saint Anselm miscue with two outs in the stanza. Saint Anselm responded well in the top of the fourth as Clough's solo shot, the very first of his career, was given by the fourth pitcher of the afternoon for Assumption.
Assumption scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth and another five runs in the bottom of the seventh, putting the game out of reach late. The Hounds utilized eight hits in those two innings combined, keeping the line moving on the way to the convincing victory.
Despite allowing zero earned runs in a game where the visitors scored 16 times, junior Shawn Morrow (Melrose, Mass.) drew the loss in the game. Pitchers Will Hunter (Middleton, Mass.), Taylor French (Goffstown, N.H.) and Andy Grygorcewicz (Northampton, Mass.) came on in relief, with the latter arm contributing his second straight scoreless relief appearance.
The nine Assumption pitchers combined to issue nearly a hit per inning, but totaled nine strikeouts on the day and just two earned runs allowed. Clough and Baker each led Saint Anselm with two hits.
Brendan Desautels earned the win for Assumption on the mound with one inning of work, giving up an unearned run. Jared Berardino was the offensive star for the Greyhounds, rapping five hits in five at-bats, scoring three runs, hitting two home runs and falling just a triple shy of the cycle.
