WALTHAM, Mass. – The Saint Anselm College baseball team returns to the Northeast-10 Conference postseason on Tuesday, taking on Bentley in the First Round of the league's championship.

With all 14 teams competing in the NE10 playoffs, the Hawks have earned the Northeast Division's sixth seed with a 10-18 overall record alongside a 5-16 record against conference opponents. Bentley enters play as the No. 3 seed, earning hosting rights after posting a 16-10 overall record and a 15-9 record versus the league.

Saint Anselm is making its first postseason appearance since 2012 when it earned a share of the Northeast Division's Regular Season Championship. The Hawks finished that season with a 29-25-2 overall record and earned a spot in the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament.

Bentley won three out of the four games against Saint Anselm this season, but the Hawks kept each game competitive and won the lone game on a walk-off, two-run single by Mike Borrelli (Salisbury, Mass.) on Saturday, Apr. 3.

Live Statistics and Live Video for Tuesday's single-elimination game are available courtesy of Bentley Athletics. Per the Falcons' Spectator Policy, fans are not allowed at athletics contests hosted by Bentley.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

• In 2021, Saint Anselm batters have combined to slug 39 home runs on the season, the second-most in team history. The Hawks are just six home runs shy of the all-time team record (45, 2001).
• Junior Kyle Maurice (Exeter, N.H.) ls leading the NE10 in home runs, the lone student-athlete in the conference to have reached double-digits in that category, and owns an active five-game hitting streak to lead the team. Sophomore Brady Doran (Stony Brook, N.Y.) has rapped a career-high eight home runs in 2021, ranking fifth in the league.
• Saint Anselm is batting .288 against Bentley on the year, picking up 36 hits (eight doubles, three home runs). Junior Matt Collins (Beverly, Mass.) is his team's leading hitter against the Falcons, batting .500 with a 7-for-14 performance earlier in the year.
• Junior Mike Pierro (North Andover, Mass.) is batting .403 on the season, collecting 29 hits in 72 at-bats on the year with five home runs. The sixth-ranked hitter in the conference in terms of batting average, he has driven in 12 runs on the season and has gotten on base at a .470 clip, leading the team in that metric.
• Senior Ryan Schworer (Medfield, Mass.) had 10 strikeouts in his start against Bentley earlier in the year. He did not allow an earned run across six innings, limiting the Falcons to a .217 batting average against.
• Sophomore Dylan Bedder (New Providence, N.J.) is averaging 15.03 strikeouts per nine innings, ranking second in the NE10 and fifth in all of NCAA Division II. Senior Will Conaton (Windham, N.H.) has logged 11.71 strikeouts per nine innings so far this season, the eighth-best figure in the NE10.
• Senior Max Silverman (Westford, Mass.) has reached base in 10 consecutive games and has doubled in two of his last three games played.

SCOUTING BENTLEY

• Bentley enters the game after splitting a four-game series with Stonehill. Prior to that series, the Falcons had dropped five of their prior seven games and lost four in a row at one point. Bentley logged a nine-game winning streak from Apr. 5 through Apr. 18.
• Ryan Berardino is ranked fifth in NCAA Division II in batting average (.477) and is the fourth-hardest in the country to strike out, fanning just once every 21.5 at-bats on the year. Paul Frisoli also finds himself ranked nationally, posting the nation's fourth-finest "hits allowed per nine innings" metric (4.24).
• According to the Bentley athletics website, Frisoli is in line to take the ball for Bentley. He has given up only nine hits and four runs in his last 24 innings of work and is the owner of a 2-0 record and a 2.38 earned run average.
• Frisoli pitched a complete-game four-hitter against Saint Anselm on Apr. 28, 2019, punching out 11 batters, but was touched for five runs in the appearance against the Hawks earlier this season.
• Bentley leads the NE10 in sacrifice flies (21) and triples (10). The team is also second in the conference with five complete games and 12 sacrifice bunts.
• Head Coach Bob DeFelice is in the midst of his 53rd season at Bentley in 2021. He started the program in 1969 and has since been inducted into nine halls of fame.

ALL-TIME vs. BENTLEY

• Bentley owns an 83-43-1 record against Saint Anselm in the all-time series that dates back to Apr. 23, 1981.
• In the first game of the 2021 season against Bentley, the Hawks rallied from a 7-2 deficit to take a 9-8 lead in the seventh, but Bentley scored three consecutive runs to earn an 11-9 win. The Hawks locked down a walk-off victory to conclude the day, using a two-run single by Borrelli in the second game of the doubleheader.
• Down 10-4 in the next day's opener versus the Falcons, the Hawks put three runs on the board late and threatened in the bottom of the seventh, putting two runners on before dropping a 10-7 result. Saint Anselm out-hit Bentley in the fourth and final game, but dropped a 9-4 decision after Bentley scored five runs in the first three innings.

ALL-TIME in NE10 POSTSEASON PLAY

• Saint Anselm has competed in only eight prior NE10 postseasons and owns a 4-9 record (.308) in all-time play.
• The most recent victory in NE10 postseason play came against Bentley on May 9, 2012, a 9-0 shutout of the Falcons in a game played at Gill Stadium. Prior to that victory, the Hawks had not won an NE10 playoff game since 1987.
• Saint Anselm went on to defeat Le Moyne later in the 2012 NE10 postseason before falling to Franklin Pierce and Le Moyne in the double-elimination tournament.
• Bentley joins Saint Anselm in the search for its first-ever NE10 postseason title. The Falcons finished as the conference's runner-up in 1986 and 1987.
• The Falcons last won a postseason game in 2013, stunning Southern New Hampshire in the NE10 First Round by a 3-2 margin.