EASTON, Mass. (March 22, 2024) – If you're going to play baseball when it's circa 40 degrees out, you might as well win. If it's 39 degrees at first pitch and you're playing a doubleheader? Well, you might as darn well win them both. Mission accomplished for the Sacred Heart University baseball team on the road on Friday afternoon. Four Pioneer pitchers combined to allow just two runs on the day, as SHU swept a Northeast Conference twinbill from Stonehill at Lou Gorman Field, 6-1 and 3-1.
 
It is the third straight NEC series win to open the league campaign for SHU (9-11, 7-1 NEC). The Pios will look for their second straight weekend sweep when they wrap up the series at Stonehill (4-11, 0-5 NEC) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
Game 1: Sacred Heart 6, Stonehill 1
 
Friday starts by right-hander Jake Babuschak (Jobstown, N.J.) are quickly becoming appointment viewing in the NEC, as he authored another gem in the opener today. It was seven innings of work on 98 pitches for the senior, who held Stonehill to just one run on five hits, walked two and struck out four.
 
Stonehill got two in scoring position with nobody out in the second, but Babuschak (3-3) forced a Taylor Gaspar line-out and then induced weak contact in front of the plate from Dylan Zemotel to extinguish the threat. Babuschak would surrender a wind-aided solo home run to Jack Thorbahn leading of the fourth, but that was about it. The Skyhawks did not put another runner in scoring position with less than two outs against the SHU ace on the afternoon.
 
Across three starts since league play opened, Babuschak has allowed just five runs on 18 hits across 23 innings, including a shutout at FDU, to post a 1.96 ERA. The right-hander has 15 strikeouts against four walks in the three starts and is holding NEC batters to just a .212 batting average.
 
Meanwhile, SHU got Babuschak the only two runs he would need in the top of the third. Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.) led things off by yanking a single down the right-field line, before Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) singled and Peter Link (Holmes, N.Y.) was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out for Ronan Donohue (Melrose, Mass.). The cleanup hitter made right-hander Ryan Douglas pay, as he rapped a two-run single through the middle of the infield to open the scoring.
 
After the Thorbahn homer in the fourth, Sacred Heart would break the game open with a four-spot in the top of the fifth, with Ronan Donohue again playing the catalyst. A Gavin Donohue single through the left side and a Link double to left set the table, once again with nobody out. This time, Ronan Donohue turned on one and got all of it, to club his second home run of the season, a three-run shot over the fence in left. Tyler Galletti (Plainview, N.Y.) would later chase home the inning's final run with an RBI groundout.
 
Right-hander David Aufiero (Glen Head, N.Y.) took over for Babuschak to start the eighth and fired two scoreless, one-hit innings with a pair of strikeouts to finish things off for the Pios.
 
Douglas (0-4) tossed 88 pitches over six innings of work, but left with a fairly nasty stat line after things melted down in the sixth. He was charged with six runs on 10 hits, hit two batters and struck out four.
 
Game 2: Sacred Heart 3, Stonehill 1
 
A pitcher's duel was in store for the second game, as right-handers Joe Trombley (Watervliet, N.Y.) and Zach Gleason locked horns in a game which would go into the eighth inning tied 1-1.
 
Trombley used 69 pitches to fire six innings of one-run ball for SHU, as he allowed just four hits, walked one, hit one and struck out four. Gleason matched him step for step through five innings of work, before departing with an apparent leg injury, as he also surrendered one run, on just three hits, walked one, hit a batter and chalked up six strikeouts.
 
Stonehill staked Gleason to an early lead with a run in the last of the first. Conor Kiely reached on an infield single leading off, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and scored when Trey Ciulla-Hall drove a double into the gap in right-center. Trombley avoided further damage by stranding Ciulla-Hall at second base, as the big right-hander retired the next seven Skyhawks to come to the plate and allowed only one further runner to reach scoring position during his outing.
 
Stonehill held the 1-0 lead until the fourth, when SHU evened things up. Link took a one-out walk, advanced on a balk and scored on an RBI single by Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.).
 
The game would stay stuck at 1-1 into the eighth, when the Pioneers struck for their second victory of the day. Alex Ungar (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) opened the inning loudly, with a triple into the gap in right-center. Right-hander Braydon Gray was able to strike out Dennis Gamester (West Haven, Conn.), but then Charlie Tallman (Fair Haven, N.J.) lined a one-out sacrifice fly to left to break the tie.
 
Link added some insurance in the top of the ninth inning, with a one-out solo home run, the first of his collegiate career.
 
Right-hander Michael Boyian (Norwalk, Conn.) threw the seventh, eighth and ninth innings for SHU, surrendered just three hits and did not cede a run to win (3-0) in relief. The late runs made a loser out of Gray (0-1), who was otherwise strong, as he logged the final four innings in relief after Gleason left injured. Gray allowed two runs on two hits, did not issue a walk and struck out four.