WALTHAM, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College baseball team split a pair of 3-2, 12-inning affairs with Bentley University on Saturday at DeFelice Field, with sophomore Drew Salk (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial) driving home the winning run in the opener for the Purple Knights. Saint Michael's fell to 9-21 overall and 3-14 in the Northeast-10 Conference, as all three games of the weekend set with the Falcons were decided by one run, with the hosts claiming two of the contests. Bentley is now 7-16 and 5-6.

The Purple Knights had played only three games that lasted for at least 12 innings since the program was resurrected in 1990, only two of which had come in NE-10 play, and they had yet to head to extra innings in both ends of a doubleheader in that time. Saint Michael's, which has suffered four one-run losses in the last five days, has absorbed 14 of its 21 setbacks by four runs or fewer this spring.

Senior George Buteau (Burlington, Vt./Trinity-Pawling School) was 3-for-6 in the opener for the Purple Knights, while classmate Nicky Elderton (Shelburne, Vt./Rice Memorial) went 2-for-5 with a run, a walk and a stolen base. Sophomore Kyle Cone (York, Maine/York) drove in a pair of runs, and classmate Steven Auger (Hopkinton, N.H./Hopkinton) doubled, scored and was hit by a pitch. Sophomore Alex Winkelmann (Gilford, N.H./Tilton School) earned the win as the second reliever, retiring five of the six batters he faced. Classmate Dylan Lavery (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial) did not figure in the decision after allowing one earned run on six hits in 8.1 innings. He struck out nine and walked four.

Senior Ryan O'Connor (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport) was 3-for-4 for Bentley, and classmate Tom Nagy (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) had a hit and walked twice. Sophomore Jack Burke (Reading, Mass./Saint John's Prep) took the loss in relief, allowing one run on three hits in five innings.

Cone knocked a two-run single up the middle with one down in the fourth inning to break a scoreless deadlock, plating Elderton and junior Matt Feeney (Portsmouth, N.H./Portsmouth). Lavery worked out of a two-on, none-out situation in the second inning as the only frame Bentley put multiple runners on base prior to Lavery carrying a 2-0 shutout into the ninth. In that frame, after an inning-opening strikeout, O'Connor and junior Bryan Rocha (Rehoboth, Mass./Dighton-Rehoboth Regional) came through with consecutive singles into left field. With Lavery now out of the game, a fielder's choice groundout scored the first run, and an error and a wild pitch brought first-year Nick Neshe (Waltham, Mass./Waltham) around with the tying run. The Falcons left the winning run at first base.

Rocha and Neshe both reached with one down in the 11th before Winkelmann came on to retire the next batter on a fly ball. After the runners pulled off a double steal to put the winning run 90 feet from home plate, a line drive to Salk in right field ended the threat. Salk came through in the top of the 12th with a two-out RBI single that scored Auger, and Winkelmann worked around a two-out walk to Nagy in the bottom half.

Salk was 3-for-6 with a run and a triple in the nightcap, Elderton picked up a pair of hits, and Buteau added a double, a run, an RBI and two walks. Cone singled and walked, while Winkelmann earned his second relief decision of the day, a two-inning loss. He struck out two and allowed one run on one hit. Sophomore Peter Cross (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) worked the first 9.1 innings, yielding one earned run on six hits.

Neshe was 2-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch, and Rocha finished 2-for-5 with an RBI. Senior Mike Muir (Bridgewater, Mass./Xaverian Brothers) was 1-for-4 with a run and a walk, and sophomore Evan Walsh (Arlington, Mass./Arlington Catholic) picked up the win with four innings of two-hit, shutout relief. He struck out five and walked one.

Feeney's leadoff triple went for naught in the second inning, and O'Connor tripled with two down before scoring on Rocha's single in the home half. The Purple Knights forged ahead in the following frame, as Salk tripled with one down before coming home on Buteau's double, and Buteau was plated on a two-out infield error. Saint Michael's had the bases loaded with one down in the fourth but was unable to score, and a throwing error on a two-out stolen base in the bottom of the sixth allowed Muir to score the tying run.

After Bentley left the winning run in scoring position with two down in the ninth, the Purple Knights loaded the bases in the 10th. Buteau led off with a walk, Elderton was hit by a pitch with one down, and Cone beat out a two-out infield single, but the final batter flew out to right field. Neshe led off the home half with a single, moved 90 feet on an error and advanced to third on the first out, but Winkelmann came out of the bullpen to induce the next two batters to ground out. In the 12th, the Falcons parlayed two batters being hit by a pitch and an infield single into a bases-loaded, none-out situation, and sophomore Carl Farnham (Bangor, Maine/Bangor) came through with the winning sacrifice fly.

The Purple Knights take their final break from league play with a doubleheader at Middlebury College on Tuesday at 2 p.m.