GAME 1 BOX SCORE | GAME 2 BOX SCORE
RAPID REACTION WITH REDSHIRT-SENIOR JAKE STEARNS

When and Where: April 14, 2018 – Hooksett, N.H. (Penmen Field)
Game 1 Score: Stonehill College 8, Southern New Hampshire University 7
Game 2 Score: Southern New Hampshire University 8, Stonehill College 0
Records: SNHU 20-12 (8-5 NE10, 7-2 NE10 NE), Stonehill 12-15 (5-9 NE10, 4-5 NE10 NE)

Redshirt-senior Jake Stearns (Plymouth, Mass.) struck out a career-high 14 in an eight-inning, four-hit shutout, as the Southern New Hampshire University baseball team salvaged Saturday's doubleheader against Stonehill College with an 8-0 shutout in game two at Penmen Field. The Skyhawks rallied from a seven-run deficit in the first game to steal an 8-7 win. 

Redshirt-junior John Stanton (Sandwich, Mass.) went 5-for-8 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored in the doubleheader, while sophomore Tom Blandini (Bow, N.H.) was 3-for-7 with a pair of walks and  scored three times. Senior Caleb Potter (Mentor, Ohio) finished 3-for-8 with a home run, two RBI and a pair of runs scored, with freshman Dakota Mulcay (Goffstown, N.H.) going 3-for-9 with a walk, home run, five RBI and three runs scored. 

Coming off the loss in game one, Southern New Hampshire grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Blandini drew a lead-off walk and stole second, before scoring on a single up the middle from freshman Sam Henrie (Middleboro, Mass.). 

Following two quick outs in the third, singles from Mulcay and Potter put a pair on, before sophomore Jake Coro (Johnston, R.I.) hooked a 1-2 pitch over the fence near the foul pole in right to increase the lead to 4-0. 

The Penmen took advantage of a pair of errors to push across two unearned runs in the fourth and then added another pair in the seventh on Mulcay's single through the right side and Coro's opposite-field double down the left field line that stretched the advantage to 8-0. 

Stearns (1-0) made it all stand up, allowing just four hits over eight scoreless innings, as he punched out a career-best 14 and walked only two. Sophomore Wesley Tobin (Portsmouth, N.H.) gave up one hit and recorded a strikeout in a shutout ninth. 

Henrie went 3-for-5 with an RBI and run scored in the contest, while Mulcay (walk, two RBI, two runs) and Coro (four RBI, run) were each 2-for-4. Blandini turned in a 1-for-3 performance with two walks and a pair of runs scored. 

In the first game, Southern New Hampshire jumped on the board first with four runs in the bottom of the third inning. After Blandini and graduate student Thomas Buonopane (Peabody, Mass.) began the inning by each getting hit with a pitch, Stanton came through with an RBI single that put the Penmen up, 1-0. Mulcay then followed by belting the first pitch he saw to deep right-center for a three-run shot that quickly made it 4-0.

Buonopane nudged the lead to 5-0 the next inning with his first home run in a Penmen uniform, drilling a two-out, 2-0 offering to left for the solo home run. 

SNHU added two more in the fifth when Stanton led off with a base hit and scored two batters later on an opposite-field, two-run long-ball to right-center from Potter. 

Grad student Shane McDonald (Blue Point, N.Y.) cruised through five shutout innings, giving up three hits, while fanning 13. He ran into trouble in the sixth, however, as allowed the first seven batters to reach before being pulled from the game with the Penmen still in front, 7-4. The eighth straight batter reached to bring in the fifth run of the inning before the first out was finally made. Stonehill would add one more before sophomore Nick Artymowicz (Seaville, N.J.) was able to make it out of the inning with SNHU clinging to a 7-6 lead. 

In the seventh, a two-run homer from Isiah Nunez off Artymowicz leapfrogged the Skyhawks in front, 8-7. 

The Penmen would leave one on in the seventh, two on in the eighth and the tying run at second in the ninth. 

Stanton was 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored, with Potter (two RBI, run), Blandini (run) and Buonopane (RBI, two runs) all going 2-for-5. Mulcay finished 1-for-5 with three RBI and scored a run. 

McDonald was charged with six runs on nine hits, while striking out 13 and walking just one, over five-plus innings. Artymowicz (2-1) relinquished two runs on four hits, punching out three and walking one, in one-and-two-thirds innings. Redshirt-sophomore Brendan Welch (Easton, Mass.) twirled two-and-a-third shutout innings, striking out two, while allowing a hit and a walk. 

Notes:
- The Penmen have now won nine of 13 and remain one game up on Assumption College for first place in the NE10 Northeast Division.
- Southern New Hampshire is now 6-2 at home this season and moves to 65-15 (.813) at Penmen Field since the start of the 2014 season.
- Blandini extends his hitting streak to 13 games and is now 26-for-58 with a home run, 15 RBI, 15 runs scored and a slash line of .448/.493/.552/.1.045 during that stretch.
- Stearns' 14 strikeouts surpass his previous career high of nine he set May 4 of last season in a 6-2 win against Merrimack College.
- Stanton's four-hit game in the opener is the first of his career and the fourth for SNHU this season.
- Mulcay's home run was his team-leading sixth of the season, while Potter's was his fifth. The long-ball for Coro was his second of the year, with Buonopane's coming as his first in a Penmen uniform.

Up Next:
The Penmen return to action Tuesday, April 17 (3:30 p.m.) when they take on Saint Michael's College. The next home game for SNHU is Wednesday, April 18 (3/6 p.m.) when it plays host to Assumption in doubleheader action at Penmen Field.

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