COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College baseball team held 12th-ranked Southern New Hampshire University off the board until the fourth inning of game one and led until the fifth inning of game two while being swept by the Penmen, 14-1 and 13-6, on Saturday during a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader at Doc Jacobs Field. Southern New Hampshire's national ranking is according to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), as the teams played nine innings in the opener and seven during the nightcap.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (1-10, 1-9 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (10-0, 10-0 NE10)

DOUBLEHEADER FACTS

• The Penmen entered the day among the final five undefeated teams in NCAA Division II, and ranked 12th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) national poll. They qualified for the last eight NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the College World Series as recently as 2018.
• Saint Michael's did well in the seven-inning nightcap against a staff ranked first in the nation in earned run average (1.83), hits allowed per nine innings (5.20), strikeouts per nine innings (12.9) and walks plus hits per innings pitched (1.02), scoring four earned runs on eight hits with only seven strikeouts and a 1.42 WHIP. The Purple Knights did their damage off of Penman redshirt junior ace Jeffrey Praml, who entered the day among the top eight nationally in five categories, including fifth in ERA (0.64) and tied for eighth in hits allowed per nine (4.50). Praml was this week's NCBWA East Region Pitcher of the Week. The Purple and Gold had two earned runs - and four runs - on three hits in the first inning alone.

GAME 1
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Iset Maldonado (Brooklyn, N.Y./Saint Francis Prep), 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 SB
• First-year Mason Dushney (Ashland, Mass./Ashland), 1-for-3
• Senior Danté Moran (Saint Petersburg, Fla./Dixie Hollins), 1 RBI, 1 HP
• Junior Ozzie Rodríguez (Tampa, Fla./Boca Ciega), 5.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 6 BB, 4 K, loss
• First-year Joey Hosea (Dorchester, Mass./Catholic Memorial), 3.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 0 K in relief

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Graduate student Joshua Goldstein, 2-for-2, 4 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HP, 2 SB
• Redshirt first-year Danniel Rivera, 2-for-3, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 SB, 1 SF
• Redshirt junior Alex Gomes, 9 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K

THE ACTION

• Rodríguez pitched around five base runners during three shutout innings to begin the game, including wriggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the second by inducing an inning-ending groundout to shortstop Maldonado.
• The Penmen broke the game open with four runs in the fourth, with sophomore Kieran Dowd's two-run double keying the frame.
• Moran was hit by a pitch with one out in the fourth as the first base runner against Gomes, and Dushney led off the sixth with a single, his team's first hit.
• The visitors bunched 10 more runs into the final four innings, using two sac flies in a four-run sixth, another sac fly in the seventh, an RBI groundout in the eighth, and redshirt first-year Michael LaRocca's two-out, two-run single in a fourth-run ninth.
• In the home half, Maldonado doubled before stealing third and came home on Moran's groundout.

GAME 2
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Maldonado, 1-for-3, 1 RBI
• Moran, 1-for-4, 1 R; 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K in relief
• Sophomore Brady Perron (Barton, Vt./Lake Region Union), 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 2B
• First-year Andrew Lanthier (Orwell, Vt./Fair Haven Union), 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SB
• Sophomore Ulysses Luciano (Bronx, N.Y./Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy), 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 SB
• Senior Julien Giroux-Harvey (Montreal, Québec/Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf), 1-for-2, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B
• First-year Jared Duquette (Morrisonville, N.Y./Saranac), 4.2, 9 H, 8 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, loss
• Junior Ian McNamara (Northampton, Mass./Northampton), 1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER in relief

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Praml, 7 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, win
• Graduate student Marcus Chavez, 4-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B
• Redshirt junior Dakota Mulcay, 3-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 2B, 1 HR

THE ACTION

• In an eventful first inning, Dowd and Chavez knocked back-to-back singles to give Southern New Hampshire a 2-0 lead.
• In the home half, Luciano's RBI single scored Moran with an unearned run, Giroux-Harvey drilled the first pitch he saw into the right field gap for a two-run double, and Perron's RBI double to left had Saint Michael's in front 4-2. The Purple Knights strung together an inning that saw them score four runs, including two earned, off of Praml, who had allowed exactly four runs, two being earned, over his prior 45 innings since 2019. He had never allowed multiple runs in any of his prior 41 career appearances, nor as many as the eight hits Saint Michael's registered off of him.
• With two in scoring position for Southern New Hampshire in the second, junior right fielder Mitchell Goulet (North Easton, Mass./Oliver Ames) made a sliding catch in foul territory to end the inning.
• The Penmen took advantage of a leadoff error in the fifth to score six runs, with five unearned. Redshirt junior Idelson Taveras' chopper over the mound scored the tying run before a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, failed pickoff attempt and wild pitch accounted for the final four runs.
• Saint Michael's rallied in the home half, as Lanthier led off with a single to center before later coming home on a wild pitch, and the teams traded runs in the sixth, with Maldonado's single scoring Perron, who doubled for the second time, to make it 9-6.
• Mulcay's two-run home run keyed a four-run seventh, when the visitors scored three times with two down.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Sunday vs. No. 12 Southern New Hampshire, 12 p.m. doubleheader.