EMMITSBURG, Md. – The Sacred Heart baseball team responded to a once six run lead being cut to two with four runs in the top of the eighth to pull away from Mount St. Mary's for a 10-4 win in game one of a Northeast Conference series on Friday afternoon.  The Pioneers extend their winning streak to five games, including having won eight of their past nine, and stay atop the NEC standings at 7-2 and 14-19-1. MSM falls to 6-25.

Anthony Cappoziello delivered the final blow in the four run eighth, singling home Jayson Sullivan and Jesus Medina to put SHU ahead 10-4 and cap the scoring. Jake Friar began the inning by reaching on an error before Kenny Byram walked. Medina then successfully sacrificed the runners over to second and third, but also reached on the play when the Mountaineers unsuccessfully attempted to throw out one of the lead runners. With the bases loaded and none out, Sullivan and Zack Short produced back-to-back RBI walks to extend the lead to 8-4.

Doubling Mount St. Mary's in the hit column 14-7, Short, Sullivan, and PJ DeFilippo all had multiple hits for SHU on the afternoon, with Short and DeFilippo both driving in two runs in the top of the first on a home run and double respectively. Short finished the day 3-4 with a four RBI's, two runs, a walk, and the first inning homer. DeFilippo also had three hits, going 3-5, while Sullivan finished 2-4 with two runs and a RBI. Medina also crossed home twice. 

Jason Foley was cruised throught the first five innings en route to his first win of the year. After running into some trouble in the sixth, he finished with a line of 6.1 innings, allowing four earned on six hits. Dan Wertz, James Cooksey, and Ethan Lonardelli then combined to throw the final 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up just one hit.

Ryan Owens and Brendan Dabagian produced two hits and a RBI a piece for the Mount. Kory Britton had two RBI's. Thomas Williams was tabbed with the loss after getting through 3.2 innings, allowing ten hits and five earned runs.

The Pioneers jumped on the Mount right away, plating four runs in the their first at bat. After the first hitter of the afternoon was retired, Sullivan doubled before Short sent the third pitch he saw over the right field fence for the early 2-0 advantage. Following the second out, Victor Sorrento doubled and Ted Shaw walked to keep the inning alive for DeFilippo, who came through with his two RBI double to right center to double the SHU lead.

Sacred Heart added to the lead with two more in the fourth, taking advantage of two MSM errors to go ahead 6-0. Medina singled and stole second to lead off the inning before coming around to score on Short's RBI single. Short moved up to second on the single after an error and then reached third on yet another error that allowed Capozziello to reach. The next batter was retired, but Shaw came through with a RBI single to stretch the advantage to six.

Mount St. Mary's benefited on a hit by pitch and walk, with a single in between, to load the bases with one out in the bottom half of the sixth and plate its first run of the game. Britton's RBI groundout brought home Tommy Quealy and moved runners up to second and third, but Foley allowed no more getting the next hitter to groundout.

It was much of the same for the Mountaineers in the seventh as two more walks and a single loading the bases once again, this time with zero out.  Dabagian kept the rally going with his RBI single before it came to a momentary halt, as Foley forced the last batter he faced to pop out for the first out. Wertz was called upon to get SHU out of the jam, but he walked the first batter he faced on four pitches to allow MSM to get within four. He bounced back to strike out the next hitter before Britton cut further into the lead with a RBI single up the middle. On the play, Short killed the potential for any further momentum, gunning down a Mountaineer at third for the final out of the inning. 

Sacred Heart and the Mount resume their four game series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 1 pm.