BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (April 12, 2024) – Would you rather have a 5-for-5 day or hit for the cycle? Which is more impressive? If you're
Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.), the answers are "Why not both?" and "It doesn't matter, because I did both!", respectively. The junior center fielder went 5-for-5 with a pair of singles, a double, a triple and a solo home run at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday afternoon, to lead the Sacred Heart University baseball team to a 12-6 victory over Le Moyne. Right-hander
David Aufiero (Glen Head, N.Y.) chalked up four scoreless innings to nail down the save in the opener of the Northeast Conference weekend series.
Le Moyne (12-16, 8-7 NEC) opened the scoring in a hurry, with a run in the top of the first, just three batters in. Zach Brush opened the game with a single inside the right-field line, moved to second on a groundout and scored when Nick Nevins lined an RBI single back through the middle of the infield.
SHU (17-13, 13-3 NEC) – which has now won six straight NEC series openers – responded with two in the first and three more in the second to jump to a 5-1 lead. In the first,
Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) had an RBI groundout and
Tim McGuire (Portsmouth, R.I.) dumped an RBI single into left-center. In the second,
Alex Ungar (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) pulled a run-scoring single through the left side and D'Amore picked up his second and third RBIs of the day with a two-run single down the left-field line.
Both teams got a run in the third, and then The
Zack Kovalchik Show started in earnest in the bottom of the fourth. Already with two singles and two runs scored to his name, the Keystone State native got around on one and yanked it right down the left-field line for a solo home run, his team-leading sixth of the season, to make it 7-2.
It looked like the Pioneers might run away with things, but Le Moyne fought back and got to right-hander
Jake Babuschak (Jobstown, N.J.) for a four-spot in the top of the fifth. Nevins pulled a two-run double down the right-field line and Benji Ries followed with a two-run single into right-center.
Aufiero took over for the start of the sixth inning and that was all she wrote for the Le Moyne offense. Aufiero retired the first 10 batters he faced, without the ball even leaving the infield, before issuing a pair of walks in the ninth inning. It would end up being four scoreless, hitless innings of relief for the right-hander on the way to his first save of the season, and the only ball the Dolphins could get out of the infield against him was Brush's game-ending flyout to center field.
Meanwhile, SHU used two runs in the sixth to give Aufiero some breathing room and then three more in the last of the eighth to break the game back open. Kovalchik pulled a two-run double down the left-field line in the sixth. He took care of the hardest part of the cycle the next time up by driving a run-scoring triple into the gap in right-center. In all it was 11 total bases on Friday for the reigning NEC Player of the Week, as Kovalchik went 5-for-5, scored four runs and drove in four more.
Aufiero's effort and the late run support made sure Babuschak (6-3) would improve to 6-0 in his six NEC starts. The Pio ace went five innings on 87 pitches (60 strikes), allowed six runs on seven hits, walked two and struck out a season-best eight.
Left-hander Jacob Crystal (1-6) took the ball for Le Moyne and got roughed up across six innings and 108 pitches (76 strikes). He was charged with nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits, walked one and struck out four.
The two teams will continue the weekend series at 1 p.m. on Friday at Veterans Memorial Park.
