BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (March 17, 2024) – A Northeast Conference series win already in its back pocket on the first homestand of the season, the Sacred Heart University baseball team put the hammer down on Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park. The offense built an early lead and right-handers Elijah Foster (Plainfield, N.J.) and Charlie Costello (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) made it stand up, as the Pios chalked up a 6-4 win to cap the weekend. SHU has a pair of quality series wins in the bag to open the NEC campaign and swept away a Merrimack team which was in competition for the postseason a year ago.
Keeping with the weekend's theme, SHU (7-10, 5-1 NEC) opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Tim McGuire (Portsmouth, R.I.) turned on an inside fastball and launched it into the right-center field gap to score Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.). Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) would stay hot with his sixth RBI of the series, as a single drove in McGuire and give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead after one.
Foster retired the first five batters he faced, with four strikeouts, and was on the verge of another 1-2-3 inning in the second. However, Christian Gemelli elevated a ball to center field which the wind turned into a home run, as it carried the ball beyond the reach of Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.) and dropped it on the other side of the fence.
"I feel like, early in the game, my fastball was working really well up in the zone, and down in the zone too," said Foster after his outing. "Also, I was able to command my slider really well, and also mix in a few cutters here and there. All three of those pitches were working really well for me."
The Pioneers got the run right back as Charlie Tallman (Fair Haven, N.J.) lined an RBI single to right field in the bottom half of the second. Two more came in the bottom of the third, courtesy of a seeing-eye single from Joey Skarad (Stamford, Conn.) to make it 5-1.
After a stellar weekend with the glove, Tallman's bat was lively on Sunday. He would come back to the plate in the fifth and laced an RBI double down the left-field line to push the lead out to 6-2.
Looking to mount a late comeback in the eighth, Dawson Bryce drove Costello's offering over the left field fence, to cut the lead to 6-3. Alex Haba added a double and eventually advanced to third on a flyout. Costello would escape, but the ninth would present more challenges, after Hayden Bond hit an RBI double down the right-field line to make it a two-run game and bring the tying run to the plate.
With the SHU bullpen active and the dangerous part of the Merrimack lineup at the plate, Costello forced a check-swing bouncer to second from Cavan Brady, which put the Warriors down to their final out with Frankie Ferrentino at the plate. Costello forced the reigning NEC Rookie of the Year to ground out to Tallman, and the Pioneers left the Vet as victors for a third straight day.
Foster used a mid-90s fastball to set up his off-speed pitches and piled up seven strikeouts across just 4.2 innings of work. He walked three, surrendered three hits and hit a batter, which resulted in two runs (one earned) across 92 pitches (55 strikes) and 4.2 innings of work. Costello (1-0) took care of the final 4.1 innings on 62 pitches (40 strikes) of his own. He ceded two runs on three hits, walked two and struck out three.
The Warriors deployed right-hander Brayden Ryan (1-1), who needed 78 pitches (43 strikes) to get through just three shaky innings. He allowed five runs, walked four, struck out two, and allowed seven hits. Andrew Heffernan was asked to cover the remaining five innings, held the Pioneers to one run on two hits, walked two and struck out seven in a stellar relief performance to keep the Warriors in the game.
The Pioneers will travel to Bryant for a non-conference matchup on Tuesday and are on the road next weekend as well, for an NEC series at Stonehill on March 22-24.
"[We need to take the] same energy we've had the past three days and just carry it on," added Foster, looking ahead to next weekend. "The bats are hot right now; it's a bad day to be a pitcher for the other team."
