Box Score MANCHESTER N.H. – Southern New Hampshire University, the top seed in the Northeast Division, topped No. 2 Southwest seed University of New Haven 8-1 in day one of Northeast-10 Baseball Championship Weekend Friday at Penmen Field. The Penmen, who have won five straight, improve to 37-12 and will face No. 3 Northeast seed Stonehill College in Saturday's winners' bracket final at 2:00 pm, as the Skyhawks topped Adelphi University 3-1 in Friday's first game. The Chargers are now 23-12 and meet the Panthers in an elimination game at 10:00 am tomorrow.
Southern New Hampshire took control with a two-out rally in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three times. Anthony Aceto (North Providence, R.I.) lifted a single to shallow center, then O'Brien was hit by a pitch. Manny Cruz (Wolcott, Conn.) followed up with what appeared to be a triple to right, but the ball went through a gate and he was awarded a ground-rule double, giving SNHU runners second and third and a 2-1 lead with Aceto scoring. Al Stanton's (Sandwich, Mass.) two-run single through the left side gave the Penmen a 4-1 lead.
SNHU tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to build an 8-1 lead. Stanton singled up the middle to bring in two runs, while Mike Mastroberti (Ramsey, N.J.) made it 8-1 when he snuck a double inside the third base bag that got down the line.
New Haven staked itself to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second as Brendon Buckley led off with a home run to left field. The lead was short-lived, as Riley Palmer (Goffstown, N.H.) hammered his ninth home run of the season deep to right to lead off the bottom of the inning.
Penmen starter Tim Viehoff (Derry, N.H.) went 6.2 innings and improved to 5-2, scattering six hits while fanning 10 and walking just one. Benjamin Criscuolo (Branford, Conn.) earned his 13th save of the season over the final 2.1 innings, striking out two and allowing one hit.
Palmer led SNHU with three hits, while Stanton, Aceto and O'Brien each had two hits. Buckley went 3-3 at the plate for the Chargers. Pat Simone took the loss, as he was tagged for 11 hits and eight runs in 6.2 innings of work, striking out nine.
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