RINDGE, N.H. - The Saint Michael's College baseball team was swept in a Northeast-10 Conference Northeast Division doubleheader by No. 3 Franklin Pierce University, 23-2 and 4-1, on Sunday at Pappas Field. The Purple Knights are 4-11 overall and 0-4 in the NE-10, while the Ravens are 21-2 and 4-1. Franklin Pierce, which qualified for the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, is ranked third nationally by D2baseballnews.com.

Senior George Buteau (Burlington, Vt./Trinity-Pawling School) was 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs for Saint Michael's in game one, junior Matt Feeney (Portsmouth, N.H./Portsmouth) had two RBIs, and senior Don McGuirl (Warwick, R.I./Saint Sebastian's School) walked twice. Sophomore Alex Winkelmann (Gilford, N.H./Tilton School) took the loss after allowing eight earned runs in 2.1 innings. Junior Luke Barkowski (Dorchester, Mass./Deerfield Academy) was the most effective among his team's three relievers, yielding one earned run in 2.2 frames.

Junior Maxx Sheehan (San Jose, Calif./West Valley) was 3-for-6 with three runs and five RBIs while falling a single shy of the cycle for the Ravens, classmate Kurtis White (Nahant, Mass./UMass Boston) was 3-for-3 with three runs, two RBIs and two walks, and first-year Christopher Stanford (Quebec City, Quebec/Champlain Saint Lawrence) hit a grand slam in his only plate appearance. Senior Brendan O'Rourke (Shrewsbury, Mass./Santa Fe) did not allow any hits in six innings, striking out seven and walking two.

McGuirl walked with one out in both the first and fourth innings as the lone Purple Knight base runner in the opening five frames but moved no further than second base, following his second base on balls. Sheehan led off the first inning with a home run before Franklin Pierce added three runs on four hits in the second, and Sheehan's two-run triple keyed a six-run third. His two-run double came amid an eight-run fifth, and Stanford launched a two-out grand slam in the sixth, with all four runs unearned.

Saint Michael's got a run back in the seventh on Feeney's sacrifice fly before putting together a one-out threat in the ninth. Buteau singled up the middle for his team's first hit before senior Nicky Elderton (Shelburne, Vt./Rice Memorial) and Feeney followed with knocks of their own, as Buteau scored on Feeney's RBI hit.

Senior Michael Dougherty (Albany, N.Y./Christian Brothers Academy/Schenectady County CC) doubled and scored in the nightcap for the Purple Knights, while junior Alex Holt (Framingham, Mass./Marian) and sophomore Steven Auger (Hopkinton, N.H./Hopkinton) also had knocks. Junior Curt Echo (Shelburne, Vt./Champlain Valley Union) allowed all four runs, but only two earned, in seven innings while neither walking nor striking out any batters. Senior Will Corkum (Ipswich, Mass./Ipswich) tossed a perfect eighth.

White went 2-for-3 with two RBIs for Franklin Pierce, and senior John Razzino (Cranston, R.I./CCRI) was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases. Junior Miles Sheehan (Madison, Conn./Clark) yielded one unearned run on three hits in eight frames, fanning five and walking one, before senior Paul Fahey (Dorchester, Mass./Catholic Memorial) worked a perfect ninth for the save.

Walsh's two-out RBI double in the first inning plated an unearned run, and White made it 2-0 with an RBI single the following frame. Dougherty led off the fourth with a double as the first Purple Knight to reach base, and a passed ball brought him home after McGuirl had dropped a sac bunt to move him to third. Buteau walked with one down, but the Ravens used a double play to escape that jam and others in the fifth and eighth innings.

With the visitors down just 2-1, White came through with another run-scoring single in the home half of the fourth, and Maxx Sheehan's squeeze bunt pushed the advantage to three runs in the seventh. After a leadoff single, Holt was erased by a double play in the eighth, as the final five Purple Knights were set down in order.

Saint Michael's is slated to open its home schedule on Tuesday by welcoming No. 22 Southern New Hampshire University to Doc Jacobs Field at 3:30 p.m. The Penmen, whose national ranking is according to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), won last year's NE-10 Championship.