Game 1: University of New Haven 9, #11 Southern New Hampshire University 5
Game 2: #11 Southern New Hampshire University 9, University of New Haven 6
Records: SNHU 16-5 (4-0 NE10), UNH 13-8 (1-3 NE10)
(New Haven, Conn.) --An RBI single off the bat of senior
Sam Henrie (Middleboro, Mass.) wound up plating the eventual game-winning run, as the 11th-ranked Southern New Hampshire University baseball team scored three times in the top of the seventh inning to snap a 6-all tie, en route to a 9-6 victory in game two that salvaged a doubleheader split with the University of New Haven on Saturday afternoon at Frank Vieira Field.
GAME 1: UNH 9-5
- New Haven jumped out to a 5-1 lead through five frames and led, 9-2, after eight.
- Redshirt-sophomore Danniel Rivera (New Britain, Conn.) hit a solo shot and classmate Michael LaRocca (Vero Beach, Fla.) added a two-run blast to make up a three-run ninth, but it would be too little and too late for the Penmen.
- Graduate student Josh Roberge (Chelmsford, Mass.) allowed five runs on five hits and seven walks, while striking out seven over four-and-two-thirds innings, to fall to 3-2 on the season.
- Rivera (RBI, run), LaRocca (3 RBI, run), Henrie (run) and redshirt-sophomore Cristian Mercedes (Providence, R.I.) all finished 2-for-5.
- Senior Dakota Mulcay (Goffstown, N.H.) was 2-for-4 with a run and a walk.
GAME 2: SNHU 9-6
- Sophomore Trevor Anibal (Bedford, N.H.) improved to 3-0 with five-and-a-third innings of near-lights-out relief. He allowed just one run on three hits, while punching out five and walking one.
- Trailing 1-0 in the second inning, the Penmen pushed four across via a crucial error on a ball off the bat of Rivera that unloaded the bases and made it 4-1.
- New Haven would answer with four in the home half of the second and would later tie the game, 6-6, in the fourth.
- Henrie snapped the deadlock with an RBI single to right and would steal second to draw an errant throw that pushed another run across, before a run-scoring single from redshirt-sophomore Nick Schwartz (Massapequa, N.Y.) capped the three-run seventh, as the Penmen rallied for the victory.
- Henrie and Schwartz each finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
- Mercedes put together a 3-for-4 outing with an RBI and a run.
- Rivera was 1-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored.
- Redshirt-sophomore Brandon White (Sumsbury, Conn.) started and was charged with five runs – four earned – on four hits, striking out one and walking a pair, over an inning-and-two-thirds.
NOTES
- New Haven leads the all-time series with SNHU, 38-17, while the Penmen have won 10 of the last 17 meetings.
- SNHU, ranked 11th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II Poll, is first in the NCBWA East Region Poll, while New Haven is eighth.
- Rivera's home run was his fifth of the season and the ninth of his Penmen career, while LaRocca's was his first of the year and seventh in an SNHU uniform.
- The lone run Annibal allowed was just his second of the season and first since Feb. 27 – a span of 14-and-two-thirds innings. His ERA increased from 0.51 to a still-league-leading 0.78.
- Schwartz extended his hitting streak to nine games and has hit safely in 14 of his last 15, as well as 16 of 19 for the entire season.
- Henrie is 6-for-13 (.462) with two RBI and three runs scored over the last three games.
- In his last four, Mercedes is 9-for-16 (.563) with six RBI and six runs.
UP NEXT
- SNHU and UNH will conclude the three-game set on Sunday (April 3) at noon back at Vieira Field.
