RINDGE, N.H. (April 29, 2022) -- Friday night's opener to the penultimate Northeast-10 Conference series of the season featured multiple opportunities for the Franklin Pierce University baseball team to grab a statement victory with No. 11/13 nationally ranked Southern New Hampshire in town. The Ravens allowed the opportunities to go unanswered at Pappas Field though, as the team went just 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 men on base -- including seven in the sixth inning or later -- en route to a disappointing, 3-2 loss at the hands of the Penmen. A three-run home run from sophomore Nick Schwartz in the top of the seventh erased a 2-0 lead and flipped the game's script, just moments after Franklin Pierce loaded the bases with one out and failed to score in the last of the sixth.

With the loss, Franklin Pierce falls to 23-12 (11-7 NE10), while SNHU improves to 31-7 (15-2 NE10). The two teams will meet for a doubleheader at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and then wrap up the series with a game at 2 p.m. on Sunday, all at Pappas Field.

In typical fashion for the Granite State rivalry, offense was at a premium to begin the series opener, before Franklin Pierce broke through for two in the bottom of the fourth. Sophomore Ian Battipaglia (Cheshire, Conn.) led off with a single to center and went first-to-third when sophomore Hunter Wilichoski (Hamilton, Mass.) poked a single through the right side. A groundout by junior Jake Miller (Waltham, Mass.) scored Battipaglia and moved Wilichoski to second. After a flyout and another groundout put Wilichoski at third with two outs, junior Jethro Hurt (New York, N.Y.) provided Franklin Pierce's only timely hit of the game, as he flipped an RBI single into left field to double the lead.

Meanwhile, sophomore right-hander Kyle Roche (Braintree, Mass.) cruised through the early going. Through six innings, he had faced the minimum, with six strikeouts, and allowed just one hit, which junior catcher Max Gebauer (Guilderland, N.Y.) then erased at second base on a stolen-base attempt.

The Ravens had a primo opportunity to build Roche a bigger lead in the bottom of the sixth. A one-out double to the gap in left-center by Miller, a hit batsman and an infield single deep in the hole on the left side by junior Graham Smith (Wilmington, Mass.) filled the bases with pinstriped white uniforms with just one away. However, Hurt fouled off the first pitch then swung through the next two to strike out, and then Gebauer bounced out to first on the first pitch, which left SNHU senior right-hander Angus McCloskey beating his chest in the direction of the Franklin Pierce dugout on the way off the mound.

The squandered chance would immediately prove immensely costly, as Roche ran into his first trouble in the top of the seventh and SNHU struck for the lead. He issued a leadoff walk to sophomore Danniel Rivera, and then sophomore Christian Mercedes looped a single into right field to set the table. Roche got SNHU's leading power threat, senior Sam Henrie -- who finished 0-for-4 -- to fly out to right for the first out and then got out in front of the clean-up hitter Schwartz. The 0-2 pitch was a mistake which stayed up on the outer half though, and Schwartz did not miss. The designated hitter went with the pitch and drove it an estimated 345 feet the other way, over the right-field fence, for his sixth home run of the season, a three-run shot to deliver the lead to the visiting dugout.

The Ravens were not without chances the rest of the way. It was two on and nobody out for the heart of the order in the last of the seventh, but Battipaglia struck out looking on five pitches and Wilichoski went down swinging on four pitches, before Miller flew out to end the frame. In the ninth, a pinch-hit single from junior Joseph Pesce (Lake Mary, Fla.) and a floating single into no man's land down the right-field line by junior Joel Lara (Boston, Mass.) put runners at the corners with one out, again for the heart of the order. Again though, Battipaglia could not put the ball in play, as he struck out swinging on four pitches, before Wilichoski bounced out to Mercedes at third to end the ballgame. 

Roche (4-1) used 92 pitches (65 strikes) to get through 6.2 innings on the hill. He finished with seven strikeouts, against just one walk and four hits, though one was the three-run homer which stuck him with the loss.

On the other side, it was some heavy lifting for SNHU senior right-hander Angus McCloskey (6-1) who powered through eight innings on 127 pitches (84 strikes) to grind out the win. He scattered nine hits to yield just two runs, walked two, hit a batter and struck out eight. Junior right-hander Ricky Alexy worked into and then out of trouble in the ninth to record his second save of the season.