MANCHESTER, N.H. (May 17, 2021) -- It was a day the pitching staff of the Franklin Pierce University baseball team would rather forget on Monday afternoon at Penmen Field. The Ravens needed eight pitchers and 178 pitches, including only 108 strikes, to get through the decisive game of the three-game Northeast Division final round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. No. 20/23 nationally ranked SNHU got an early grand slam from graduate student Marcus Chavez and 6.1 effective innings from its bullpen on the way to a 13-6 victory. Graduate student James Boria (Massapequa, N.Y.) hit a grand slam in defeat for the Ravens.

With the loss, Franklin Pierce, the division's second seed, falls to 21-9 and must await a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. With the victory, SNHU, the division's top seed, improves to 22-6 and will advance to play for the NE10 title in a best-of-three series starting Friday. The Penmen will host the winner of Monday's Southwest Division decisive game between top seed Adelphi and second seed Le Moyne.

Both teams had baserunners aplenty early on. Franklin Pierce opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first, as senior Jonel Ozuna (New York, N.Y.) hit a sacrifice fly to right.

From there, the teams would load the bases in three of the next four half-innings. In the bottom of the second, SNHU loaded them for Chavez, who slipped his third home run of the season over the shallow fence in center field to give the Penmen the lead. The Ravens responded and put three men on in the top of the third for Boria, who blasted his sixth of the season to left field to put Franklin Pierce back out front, 5-4.

A solo homer to right-center by freshman Michael LaRocca tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the third, and then the Penmen took the lead for good in the last of the fifth. With one out, junior Sam Henrie clubbed a solo shot to right-center, his second of the campaign. With two outs, junior Idelson Taveras reached on an infield single, stole second and scored when sophomore Alex Kennedy looped an RBI single into right field.

The Penmen added single runs in the sixth and seventh, as well as a four-spot in the eighth, to win going away, 13-6. Following the Boria grand slam, the Ravens could muster just one run in the top of the ninth the rest of the way. Kennedy made a leaping catch at the left field fence to end the game and deny Boria a second home run of the game, though the potential three-run shot would have only cut the lead to 13-9 with two outs in the ninth.

Gracia surrendered three runs on two hits and three walks over 1.1 innings to start for the Ravens and did not factor in the decision. Sophomore right-hander Andres Auffant (Center Moriches, N.Y.) suffered the loss (5-2) out of the bullpen, as he came on to finish the third, then pitched the fourth and fifth as well. Over 2.2 innings, he was charged with two runs on three hits and struck out three.

On the other side of the ledger, sophomore right-hander Ricky Alexy surrendered five runs on six hits and two walks over the first 2.2 innings, and also did not receive the decision. Freshman right-hander Trevor Anibal (2-0) came on in the third, then pitched the fourth and fifth as well. He faced nine batters over 2.1 innings, did not allow a hit, walked two and struck out four.