ANDOVER, Mass. (May 19, 2023) – Four home runs. A triple. Seven runs scored. Five driven in.
 
That was the line across 10 at-bats (5-for-10) on Friday for Sam Mongelli (Marlboro, N.Y.), as the senior shortstop led the Sacred Heart University baseball team to a doubleheader sweep at Merrimack in the team's final regular-season games. The Pioneers clubbed four home runs in the first game, including a Joe Emerson (Carlstadt, N.J.) grand slam, en route to a 13-7 victory. The second game required extra innings, with Joey Skarad (Stamford, Conn.) clubbing an 11^th-inning grand slam of his own to lift SHU to a 15-11 (11 inning) win.
 
Mongelli's final home run of the day gave him 20 for the season, which established a new SHU single-season record.
 
Sacred Heart (25-28, 17-13 NEC) will finish fourth in the NEC, by virtue of the two wins on Friday, combined with LIU getting swept in a doubleheader at Wagner. LIU will finish fifth, which gives the Sharks a date with SHU on the opening day of the double-elimination NEC Championship, on Wednesday, May 24. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
 
Merrimack (21-30, 14-16 NEC) has lost the ability to control its own playoff destiny and will sweat things out from home on Saturday, with the Warriors' fate hinging on Coppin State's game at Norfolk State at noon. A Norfolk State win would grant Merrimack the sixth and final spot in the NEC Championship, while a Coppin State victory would create a three-way tie which would see Maryland Eastern Shore claim the final berth.
 
Game 1: Sacred Heart 13, Merrimack 7
 
SHU started quickly and led throughout in the first game on Friday, with five runs in the top of the first, including a grand slam by Joe Emerson (Carlstadt, N.J.) for his third homer of the season. Meanwhile, Mongelli – who finished the series with five long balls – hit a solo home run in the fourth and another in the sixth to push his season total up to 18.
 
Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) added a two-run homer in the eighth to turn a three-run lead into a five-run margin and provide some breathing room. An insurance run in the ninth on a Nick Jaskolski (Seaford, N.Y.) RBI single created the 13-7 final.
 
It was pitcher-by-committee for the Pioneers, which allowed right-hander Jack Kramer (Glen Rock, N.J.) to claim the win (4-4) after throwing two innings of scoreless, hitless ball to start things off. He walked one and struck out two.
 
Right-hander Cendric Gillette (5-3) was treated rudely over 3.2 innings on the mound by the SHU bats. He was ambushed for seven runs (six earned) on five hits and did himself no favors with four walks.
 
Game 2: Sacred Heart 15, Merrimack 11 (11 innings)
 
Mongelli picked up right where he left off, as he opened the regular-season finale with a leadoff home run, which tied Bill Packer's 1981 SHU single-season record. Michael Golankiewicz answered with a leadoff homer of his own for Merrimack in the bottom half, his eighth of the campaign, and things only got wilder from there.
 
Merrimack built a 4-1 lead through two, but SHU responded with four in the third, capped by a go-ahead RBI single by Skarad to take a 5-4 lead. Skarad drove in five in the game.
 
Mongelli made the program's single-season homer mark his own in the fifth, when he became the first Pioneer to hit 20 home runs in a season, with a two-run, opposite-field shot to right-center. Merrimack got on the comeback trail with four in the fifth, and then evened things up in the sixth on a solo home run by Braydon Dolbashian, his ninth of the year.
 
SHU claimed a 10-9 lead in the top of the ninth, on D'Amore's second homer of the game and fourth of the campaign. Merrimack got it right back in the home half, when Matthew Chatelle socked a one-out solo shot to left, his fifth of the season.
 
Neither side would score in the 10^th, but SHU added an exclamation mark on the day in the top of the 11^th. Two hit batters and a walk loaded the bases for Emerson, who drew another walk to force home the go-ahead run. Skarad then promptly unloaded the bases with a grand slam to left field, his second homer of the year.
 
Merrimack got a leadoff homer from Golankiewicz in the bottom of the 11^th, but could get no closer.
 
Right-hander Charlie Costello (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) came on in the seventh and simply never left. He logged the final 4.1 innings for SHU, allowed two runs on five hits, walked three and struck out two to pick up the win (5-2).
 
Left-hander Jack Collins (3-3) allowed one run in the ninth and pitch a scoreless 10^th before running into trouble in the 11^th. In all, he was tagged for six runs on two hits, walked two and hit three batters.