BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (April 30, 2024) – A four-run deficit is nothing that can't be erased with a couple of home runs. Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) provided a pair of long-distance connections on Tuesday afternoon, as the Sacred Heart University baseball team climbed out of a 4-0 hole to pick up a 6-4, non-conference victory over Yale at Veterans Memorial Park. It was the junior first baseman's second multiple-homer game of the season.
 
Combined with a 6-2 victory on the road in mid-March, the win allowed SHU (24-19) to claim a season sweep over their in-state counterparts from Yale (15-22). Perhaps more importantly, the comeback will allow the Pioneers to carry some good vibes and high energy into their first-place showdown at Wagner this weekend. SHU opens the Northeast Conference series on Friday at 3 p.m., on the campus of Kean University, in Union, N.J.
 
"We feel really good; we're coming off a sweep this past weekend, I think this is a five-game win streak now," said D'Amore after the game, looking ahead to the weekend clash. "Wagner's a great team, but I trust all three of our starters. Our bullpen is going to lock it down this weekend and the offense is going to swing it, so we're feeling good."
 
Yale used two in the second and two more in the fourth to build out an early 4-0 lead on Tuesday. In the second, Max Imhoff hit a sacrifice fly to center and Jeff Pierantoni rapped an RBI single back through the middle. In the fourth, Imhoff hit a long, towering, two-run home run to straightaway left field, his third of the season.
 
It was six unanswered for SHU from there, bookended by blasts from D'Amore. He started the rally in the bottom half of the fourth, when he answered Imhoff's moonball with a veritable space launch of his own. D'Amore took a one-out solo shot out just to the left of straightaway center field for his fifth of the campaign to get the Pios on the board.
 
Sacred Heart closed the gap to 4-3 with two more in the fifth. Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.) doubled off the fence in right leading off and then scored from second on an errant pickoff throw behind him at second base. Later, Charlie Tallman (Fair Haven, N.J.) walked with one out, stole second and scored when Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) pulled a double inside the bag at third and down the left-field line.
 
SHU was still chasing a run in the bottom of the seventh, when Tallman and Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) set the table with back-to-back one-out singles. D'Amore cleared said table. He got a pitch to his liking and hammered it the other way into the power alley in right-center field, for a three-run, opposite-field shot to turn a one-run deficit into a two-run lead, at 6-4.
 
Yale would not get the tying run past first base over the final two innings.
 
It was pitcher by committee for both teams in the midweek contest. D'Amore's second homer made a winner (3-1) out of right-hander David Aufiero (Glen Head, N.Y.), who had worked around a one-out walk to pitch a scoreless seventh. Left-hander Owen MacDonnell (Londonderry, N.H.) retired the side in order in the ninth, with a pair of strikeouts, to nail down his fourth save of the year.
 
Right-hander Tate Evans (2-2) took the loss for Yale after surrendering two runs on three hits over the final 1.2 innings, despite four strikeouts.