SUTHERLAND, Va. – The Saint Anselm College baseball team dropped both games of its season opening doubleheader to East Stroudsburg University on Saturday, 5-0 and 18-4.
With the losses, the Hawks open the season 0-2 while the Warriors move to 3-2 on the year.
Saint Anselm has a quick turnaround as the team matches up with West Chester University on Sunday, Feb. 20 with the first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m.
Freshmen
Roman Ercoli (Concord, Mass.),
Jared Reminder (Warwick, R.I.),
Danny Kent (Hanson, Mass.),
Daniel Scolaro (Quincy, Mass.), and
Ryan Scialabba (Cheshire, Conn.) all made their collegiate debuts in game two.
GAME ONE: Saint Anselm 0, East Stroudsburg 5
After a scoreless opening two innings, the Warriors opened the scoring in the bottom of the third.
Brainy Rojas led off the inning with a double followed by a walk by
CJ Peechatka.
Brock Kaufmann singled driving in both Rojas and Peechatka and eventually scoring on the play himself, crossing the plate due to an error.
The Hawks would break into the hit column in the top of the fourth on a single by graduate student
Salvatore Pezzola (East Greenbush, N.Y.) but he was stranded on the bases.
Senior
Mike Pierro (North Andover, Mass.) opened the top of the sixth with a double but a pair of strikeouts and a fly out ended the inning for the Hawks.
East Stroudsburg added to its lead in the bottom half of the inning as
Tim Haverstick led off with a homerun before Rojas recorded a sacrifice fly to center field, adding a fifth run on the board.
The Hawks managed to get two runners on base in the top of the seventh as senior
Brady Doran (Greenville, S.C.) doubled with two outs followed by sophomore
Zack Clough (Newbury, Mass.) getting hit by a pitch but the contest would end on a strikeout, stranding both Doran and Clough.
Junior
Dylan Bedder (New Providence, N.J.) was hit with the loss after going six innings and allowing four hits and five runs while striking out seven and walking six.
GAME TWO: East Stroudsburg 18, Saint Anselm 4
Sophomore
Nolan Elmore (Brentwood, N.H.) doubled to lead off the bottom of the second and was driven home on a two-run home run by senior
Daniel Baker (Reading, Mass.), giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead through two innings of play.
East Stroudsburg got on the board in the top half of the third as
Anthony Torreullas doubled home Rojas, who singled to lead off the inning.
The Warriors posted seven runs on two hits in the top of the fourth to take an 8-2 lead. Junior
John Donovan (Lowell, Mass.) walked the first two batters but got a ground ball out, advancing runners to second and third. A passed ball allowed a run to score before two walks loaded the bases for Peechatka who hit a grand slam to give East Stroudsburg a 6-2 lead with one out in the inning. Two bases loaded walks brought two more runs home before the Hawks got a pop out to end the inning.
Saint Anselm loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth as senior
Chris Schworer (Medfield, Mass.) walked to open the inning before classmate
Matt Collins (Beverly, Mass.) singled to right field. Clough singled to get the bases loaded and a pair of walks by Pezzolla and Elmore brought two runs in pushing the score to 8-4.
East Stroudsburg tacked on three runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, five in the eighth and one in the ninth to open an 18-4 lead.
Donovan is charged with the loss after going for 3.1 innings pitched, allowing six hits and seven runs.
