ANDOVER, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College baseball team put together a pair of close results against No. 14 Southern New Hampshire University before being swept, 7-2 and 3-1 in seven innings, during a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader on Friday at Greater Lawrence Technical School.

The Penmen, who are 14th in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) national poll and first in the East Region rankings, have qualified for the past nine NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the 2021 College World Series. Southern New Hampshire won last year's NE10 Championship and claimed the last four NE10 Northeast Division regular-season crowns.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (3-18, 2-6 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (22-7, 8-2 NE10)

GAME FACTS

• Seven of the Purple Knights' last nine games was decided by three runs or less, with seven losses this year coming by two runs or fewer.

GAME 1
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior Ulysses Luciano (Bronx, N.Y./Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy), 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR
• First-year Filly Santos (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Park West), 1-for-3
• Junior Anthony Santosuosso (Arlington, Mass./Arlington), 1-for-3
• First-year Terence Moynihan (Stoneham, Mass./Saint Mary's), 0-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB
• Senior Sean Birch (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield), 6 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, loss
• First-year Colby Fane-Cushing (Colchester, Vt./Colchester), 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K in relief

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Redshirt sophomore Nick Schwartz, 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HR, 1 SB
• Senior Dakota Mulcay, 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HR
• Redshirt senior Cristian Mercedes, 2-for-5, 1 RBI, 1 2B, 1 SB
• Senior Angus McCloskey, 9 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

THE ACTION

• Back-to-back doubles by redshirt sophomore Danniel Rivera and Mercedes put the Penmen on the board in the first inning.
• Senior Sam Henrie and Schwartz knocked consecutive solo home runs in the third.
• Redshirt first-year Anthony Poole swatted a two-run homer in fourth, and Mulcay added a two-run homer in the fifth.
• Birch retired his final five batters while combining with Fane-Cushing to set down 11 of the last 15 Penmen hitters.
• McCloskey, who retired 17 consecutive Purple Knights between the second and seventh frames, walked senior John Luke Cianciolo (Guilford, Conn./Guilford/New Haven) to lead off the eighth, but the Penmen turned a double play behind him. Santosuosso followed with a single, but the final batter struck out.
• In the ninth, Moynihan walked with one down, and Luciano cracked a two-run longball to trim the Saint Michael's deficit. However, McCloskey induced a groundout and struck out the last hitter of the game.

GAME 2
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Luciano, 2-for-3
• Santosuosso, 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 2B
• Moynihan, 1-for-3, 1 2B
• Sophomore Matt Sevigny (Rocky Hill, Conn./Rocky Hill), 1-for-2
• First-year Evan Balian (Lynnfield, Mass./Lynnfield), 1-for-3
• Sophomore Jared Duquette (Morrisonville, N.Y./Saranac), 6 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Schwartz, 3-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 SB
• Poole, 2-for-2
• Redshirt sophomore Cam Caraher, 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR
• Graduate student Josh Roberge, 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K

THE ACTION

• Five of the Purple Knights' first eight batters got aboard thanks to hits. Moynihan doubled with one down in the first but was cut down trying to score on Luciano's single. Balian singled next, and Cianciolo's walk loaded the bases, but Roberge struck out the final hitter.
• Santosuosso led off the second inning with a double, moved 90 feet on Sevigny's bunt single and scored on senior Sebastian Oetterer's (Orlando, Fla./Dr. Phillips) fielder's choice grounder. However, only one of the final 17 batters got a hit off of Roberge, who was aided by a pair of double plays.
• Caraher's go-ahead two-run homer in the bottom half gave the Penmen the final lead, and Duquette left a pair of runners at the corners by getting the final batter to ground into a fielder's choice.
• Schwartz's RBI single the next inning padded the lead. Duquette yielded Southern New Hampshire just a 2-for-12 batting line with all five of his strikeouts from that point on.
• Luciano singled with one down in the sixth but was erased on a double play, and the Purple Knights went down in order in the seventh.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday at No. 14 Southern New Hampshire, 12:30 p.m. doubleheader.