BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (April 6, 2024) – The latter stages of Saturday afternoon's game at Veterans Memorial Park were a bit of a roller coaster, but one which left the Sacred Heart University baseball team with an 8-5 lead heading into the ninth inning. The Pioneers could not finish things off. The first collegiate grand slam for Daniel Moore capped a five-run top of the ninth inning, as visiting Coppin State rallied for a 10-8 victory in the middle game of a three-game Northeast Conference series. Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) homered twice in defeat for SHU, the second multiple-home run game of his career.
 
Through six innings, it was Kovalchik 3, Coppin State 2. The Eagles opened the scoring with a pair in the top of the first, as Damon Gaither provided an RBi groundout and Braylon Watson hit a pop up which the wind turned into an RBI double by depositing the ball in shallow center field. Kovalchik countered with a solo home run in the fourth and a two-run shot in the sixth, his third and fourth homers of the season, both to left field.
 
The game would come off the rails a bit in the seventh, when the two teams combined for eight runs, six hits and three errors. In the top half of the frame, Coppin State (6-17, 5-9 NEC) capitalized on three Sacred Heart errors to score three unearned runs and stake out a 5-3 lead. Samuel Nieves drove in a run with a squeeze bunt, while Christopher Marte provided a sacrifice fly in the frame as well.
 
SHU (14-13, 11-3 NEC) would load the bases with one out in the bottom half of the inning, before Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) popped the ball up on the right side, on a very similar trajectory to the ball which the wind had turned into a double for Watson back in the first. Third-base umpire David Martinez signaled for an infield fly, a decision which would prove questionable, at best, given the blustery conditions at the Vet. With Donohue already ruled out, the wind wound up pushing the ball back into shallow center field, beyond the range of Moore at second base, and fell to the grass untouched.
 
Free to advance at their own risk, each SHU baserunner took the next base, including Tim McGuire (Portsmouth, R.I.), who scored from third to give Donohue an RBI on the play, and all that was missing was a soundtrack of circus music. When the play finally came to a halt, SHU head coach Pat Egan earned his second career ejection for vociferously disagreeing with Martinez's handling of the situation.
 
The Pioneers would go on to plate five runs in the inning anyway. Peter Link (Holmes, N.Y.) pulled a double down the left-field line, Kovalchik drove in his fourth run of the game with a double inside the bag at third, and Ronan Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) pulled an RBI single through the left side to make it four straight run-scoring plays.
 
After a scoreless eighth, Sacred Heart carried a three-run lead into the ninth on its home field, with the series victory within reach, but then everything came unraveled. Back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases with Eagles with nobody out, before right-hander Charlie Costello (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) struck out Bryce Thompson for the first out. Costello had Angel Colon in an 0-2 hole, but then missed with four straight – the first two of which were very close calls – to force home the first run of the inning.
 
The game then reached its crescendo as Moore got around on an 0-1 pitch on the inner half. Given the conditions, anything in the air to left field was a threat on Saturday afternoon, and this one proved especially dangerous. The ball only returned to the ground on the far side of the left-field fence, for Moore's first home run of the season and first career grand slam, as he put Coppin State out front, 10-8.
 
Right-hander John Neeld (1-2) got the Pios in order in the last of the ninth to finish off 2.1 innings of scoreless, two-hit relief and put the game away.
 
Costello (2-1) suffered the loss after a 2.1-inning relief stint of his own. He was charged with five runs – all in the ninth – on four hits, a pair of walks and a hit batter.
 
The two teams will meet for the decisive third game of the weekend series at noon on Sunday at Veterans Memorial Park.