LAKE WALES, Fla. - The Saint Michael's College baseball team finished its Spring Break trip by splitting a doubleheader with Alfred State (N.Y.) College on Friday during the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational at Warner University's Royals Field. Now 4-7, the Purple Knights lost the opener, 6-2, before rebounding with a 15-2 victory in the nightcap over the 1-10 Pioneers. During Friday's second game, senior George Buteau (Burlington, Vt./Trinity-Pawling School) became the 12th Saint Michael's baseball player with 100 career hits, including the third in four days.

Senior Michael Dougherty (Albany, N.Y./Christian Brothers Academy/Schenectady County CC) had an RBI triple and a run scored for Saint Michael's in game one, while sophomore Steven Auger (Hopkinton, N.H./Hopkinton) and first-year Peter Bocchino (Saugus, Mass./The Governor's Academy) both contributed a base hit, with Auger also being hit by a pitch. Senior Don McGuirl (Warwick, R.I./Saint Sebastian's School) provided an RBI and sophomore Drew Salk (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial) scored a run. Classmate Alex Winkelmann (Gilford, N.H./Tilton School) was saddled with the loss after allowing four runs in 1.1 innings. Junior Curt Echo (Shelburne, Vt./Champlain Valley Union) tossed 4.2 innings in relief, surrendering two runs on six hits.

Sophomore Matthew Nawrot (Clarence, N.Y./Clarence) went 2-for-2 with two runs for Alfred State, while senior Jordan Wheaton (Wayland, N.Y./Wayland Cohocton) was 2-for-3 with a walk. Sophomore Jake Remington (Letchworth, N.Y./Letchworth) threw a complete game, allowing zero earned runs on three hits with six strikeouts.

Alfred State scored the game's first run when Nawrot touched home on a two-out wild pitch in the first inning, and Nawrot and Wheaton both laced RBI singles in the second to spark a four-run frame, giving Alfred State a 5-0 lead through two innings. After Salk reached on an error and Auger singled to start the third, Dougherty belted an RBI triple to push home Salk, but Auger was thrown out trying to score. McGuirl's ensuing groundout scored Dougherty.

The Pioneers stranded a pair of runners in the home half of the fourth, and Salk and Auger were stranded in scoring position after being hit by pitches to start the fifth. Sophomore Angel Collazo's (Bronx, N.Y./Urban Assembly School for Careers in Sports) two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning plated the final run. Bocchino's single in the sixth was the last hit for either team, as both squads were set down in order in their final respective half innings.

Elderton went 3-for-5 with three runs, three RBIs and three doubles in the second contest, while McGuirl was 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Dougherty finished 2-for-4 with three runs, two RBIs, another triple and a hit-by-pitch, and first-year Aiden Burton (Milford, Conn./Notre Dame) went 2-for-3 with a double. Buteau scored twice and drove in a pair, while Bocchino and junior Alex Holt (Framingham, Mass./Marian) both drove in two runs. In his first college start, sophomore Peter Cross (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) struck out a career-high eight while scattering six hits and yielding the two runs. First-year Steve Knable (Manalapan, N.J./Saint John Vianney) fanned two in a perfect seventh during his college debut.

Six Pioneers had one hits apiece, including sophomore Chris Borden (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville), who also drove in a run. First-year Kyle Redman (Fillmore, N.Y./Fillmore) was knocked out after 0.1 innings and was charged with three runs, two earned, on four hits.

The Purple Knights plated three runs in the first before tacking on six in both the fourth and sixth, with all 15 runs coming in those three frames. Saint Michael's recorded four straight hits in the first inning, including Buteau's RBI single for his 100th career hit, followed by Elderton's RBI double. With the bases loaded and two out in the top of the second, Borden's RBI single was followed by sophomore Austin Baker (Canisteo, N.Y./Canisteo-Greenwood) being hit by a pitch, and the Pioneers trailed just 3-2. However, Cross induced a groundout to escape the threat, the first of nine straight batters he retired.

Saint Michael's batted around and broke out for six runs on six hits in the fourth. McGuirl hit an RBI single before being followed with one out by Elderton's two-run double, Bocchino's two-run single and Salk's RBI double. Six more runs came around in the sixth inning as the Purple Knights batted around again thanks in part to five hits, including the first knocks in the careers of first-year pinch hitters Joe Criscuolo (East Haven, Conn./Xavier) and Zach Szczechowicz (Epping, N.H./Trinity). Szczechowicz smacked an RBI single with one down, followed immediately by Holt picking up a pinch-hit two-run single and Dougherty tripling home a pair. Buteau's sacrifice fly capped the scoring.

The Purple Knights return north to take on Saint Anselm College on Monday at 3 p.m. in a contest that will be played at Franklin Pierce University. The contest was originally scheduled for next Wednesday.