HOOKSETT, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College baseball team posted wins of 16-5 and 4-2 to sweep Saint Michael's College in its Northeast-10 Conference Northeast Division doubleheader from Penmen Field on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University on Friday.
With the sweep, the Hawks move to 6-21 on the season and 2-4 in conference games while the Purple Knights fall to 2-18 overall and 2-8 against conference foes. The teams will wrap up their four-game series on Saturday, Apr. 8 from Sullivan Park, marking the first games played on the Hilltop for the Saint Anselm baseball program this season.
Senior
Mike Borrelli (Salisbury, Mass.) led the Hawks with five hits on the day with sophomore
Ryan Scialabba (Cheshire, Conn.) following closely with four. Eight Saint Anselm student-athletes registered at least one hit with six student-athletes going for multiple hits. Borrelli and junior
Richie Williams (Georgetown, Mass.) were credited with four runs batted in apiece.
Sophomore
Adam Betty (Lowell, Mass.) and junior
Dallas Vaughan (Haverhill, Mass.) grabbed their second wins each this season from the mound. Betty allowed three runs on six hits in six innings of work while Vaughan allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits, also in six innings.
Graduate student
Shawn Morrow (Melrose, Mass.) and junior
Hunter Harris (Altamont, N.Y.) registered their first saves of the season. Morrow pitched the final three innings of game one while Harris came on to close out the comeback win in game two.
GAME ONE: Saint Anselm 16, Saint Michael's 5
The Hawks would strike first in the bottom of the first inning as senior
Brady Doran (Seneca, S.C.) reached out a two-out error and would advance to second on a wild pitch. However, a single through the right side from Borrelli plated Doran to give Saint Anselm a 1-0 lead.
Saint Michael's responded with a run in the top of the second inning.
Ulysses Luciano and
Filly Santos recorded back-to-back doubles to push across one run and knot the score.
Senior
Mike Pierro (North Andover, Mass.) led off the bottom of the second inning with a first pitch solo home run before classmate
Matt Collins (Beverly, Mass.) grounded out which scored Scialabba, who doubled following the Pierro big fly. Williams capped the three-run inning with an RBI double to give the Hawks a 4-1 lead through two innings.
Saint Michael's added a run in the top of the fourth inning on a lead off solo home run from
Sam Cavossa.
A sacrifice fly from
Max Kolifrath got the Saint Anselm lead to one at 4-3.
Andrew Lanthier led off the fifth inning with a double before reaching third on a ground out which set up the sacrifice fly for Kolifrath.
Sophomore
Daniel Scolaro (Quincy, Mass.) opened the bottom of the sixth inning with his fifth home run of the season which pushed the score to 5-3. After a Pierro single and a pop out, senior
Will Panarello (Barrington, R.I.) slugged his team-leading sixth homer of the season to give the Hawks a 7-3 lead through six innings of play.
Saint Anselm would tack on nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Doranm, who led off the inning with a hit by pitch, would score on a single from Borrelli after stealing both second and third. Junior
Zack Clough (Newbury, Mass.) put a ball in play with the bases loaded but an error allowed two runs to score. A single by Williams scored two more runs before Doran and Borrelli hit back-to-back home runs to cap the Hawks scoring and give them a 16-3 lead.
Saint Michael's added a pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning but Morrow got a strikeout to wrap up his three-inning save.
The Hawks hit five home runs in game one which ranks second most in a single game in program history.
GAME TWO: Saint Anselm 4, Saint Michael's 2
The Purple Knights posted the first run of game two in the top of the first inning as Lanthier led with a walk before advancing to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch.
Evan Balian would single to right center field to plate the opening run.
The Hawks responded with a run in the bottom of the frame as Williams singled and stole second before scoring on a base hit from Borrelli.
Saint Michael's regained the lead on consecutive doubles from Balian and Luciano. Luciano would advance to third but a strikeout and a ground out limited the damage for Vaughan and the Hawks.
Both programs managed to load the bases in their respective halves of the fifth inning but Vaughan and
Jared Duquette would both work their way out of the jams to keep the score at 2-1 in favor of the Saint Michael's.
The Hawks posted three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead. Scolaro registered a one-out single and following a walk issued to Pierro, would score on a Scialabba single to tie the score. Panarello followed with a two-run single to give Saint Anselm the lead. Later in the inning, Williams worked a walk which loaded the bases but Saint Michael's got a strikeout to keep the Hawks lead at two headed to the seventh inning.
Harris would fan the first two batters he faced in the top of the seventh and an error and a single brought the go ahead run to the plate. However, Harris got a groundout to cap the doubleheader sweep.
