NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (April 14, 2017) – For the first time since March 15, the Franklin Pierce University baseball team played a game away from the friendly confines of Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field on Friday afternoon. After 14 straight games at home, the Ravens took to the road in style at Warrior Baseball Diamond, as they plated four runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back on the way to a 7-4 win over Merrimack in Northeast-10 Conference Northeast Division play. Junior right-hander John Amendola (Wallingford, Conn.) put together a nine-hit, complete-game effort on the mound for Franklin Pierce.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 19-9 (11-3 NE10, 7-1 NE Div.) and moved into first place in the division, with teams approximately one-third of the way through the 21-game divisional schedule. Meanwhile, formerly first-place Merrimack falls to 13-13-1 (7-3-1 NE10, 5-1-1 NE Div.). The two teams will wrap up the three-game weekend series with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch is set for noon at Warrior Baseball Diamond.

The Ravens jumped out front in a hurry on Friday, as they plated four runs in the top of the first to take the lead for good. Three straight singles loaded the bases with nobody out to open the game, as senior center fielder Lucas Luopa (Keene, N.H.) reached on an infield hit, junior right fielder Adam Chase (Bridgewater, Mass.) pumped a single to right and junior third baseman John Friday (Southborough, Mass.) knocked the ball through the right side of the infield.

At first, it looked as if Merrimack junior left-hander Anthony Lupi would wiggle out of danger, as he got junior catcher Stephen Octave (New Windsor, N.Y.) to foul out to the first baseman and then struck out junior first baseman Dalton Davis (Birmingham, Ala.) to make it two outs and the bases still loaded. The Ravens would get the job done with two down though, albeit with the aid of the Merrimack defense.

Freshman designated hitter Dylan Jones (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) lashed a single to left field to score Luopa, while head coach Mike Chambers threw up the stop sign for Chase coming from second. However, Merrimack freshman left fielder Michael Mercuri could not field the hit cleanly, which allowed Chase to come home to score and left runners at second and third. Graduate student left fielder Anthony DeDona (Bethpage, N.Y.) was next and hit what should have been an inning-ending ground ball to second base, but senior Paul Buckley booted the ball, allowing two more runs to come home.

Meanwhile, Amendola (4-2) did the Ravens a huge favor by going the distance on the mound, as he kept the bullpen fresh with the team starting a stretch of six games in five days. He was electric for the first eight innings, surrendering just two extra-base hits, six hits overall and a run through the opening 24 outs. Tiring, as well as the victim of some misfortune in the ninth, Amendola gutted his way through the final three outs to finish off his 109-pitch (77 strikes) outing. In all, he allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits, walked one, threw a wild pitch and struck out seven. It was his team-leading third complete game of the season.

The Ravens tacked on a run in the top of the fifth to push the lead out to 5-0. With one out, Luopa singled to center, stole second, stole third and scored when Friday beat out the back end of an RBI fielder's choice, much to the chagrin of Merrimack head coach Nick Barese, who came out to vociferously argue the call on the bang-bang play at first. Barese audibly took out some of his aggressions on some equipment after returning to the dugout.

Merrimack plated a run in the home half of the fifth to cut the gap to 5-1. With one out, junior catcher Ricky Smith doubled to left and scored when Buckley followed and flipped an RBI single inside the left-field line.

Franklin Pierce struck for two more in the top of the sixth to push the lead to 7-1 and all but put the game away. Davis drove a double into the gap in right-center leading off. Jones followed and dumped a single into center field. With nobody out, Chambers threw up the stop sign at third for Davis, but junior Tyler Lyne misplayed the ball in center, allowing Davis to come in to score. The error proved moot however, as DeDona followed and clubbed a double over Lyne's head to score Jones.

Merrimack made things closer than they needed to be with three in the bottom of the ninth, but the hole would prove too large to climb out of. Junior right fielder Matt Nicholson led off with a single through the right side and moved around to third two batters later when freshman third baseman Joey Porricelli dumped a double down the right-field line. Smith was next and lashed a two-run single to center to make it 7-3, before being lifted for a pinch-runner, in the form of senior Ryan Petrone.

The Franklin Pierce defense then momentarily deserted Amendola while he tried to nail things down. He appeared to get Buckley to pop up at first for the second out, but Buckley was awarded first base on catcher's interference, as Octave got in the way of the swing. Undaunted, Amendola proceeded to induce a tailor-made double play ball from Mercuri which should have ended the game, but freshman shortstop Joe Napolitano (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) misplayed the ball, leaving the bases full and the tying run at the plate with one out.

With action intensifying in the Franklin Pierce bullpen, Amendola made sure it went no further. Back at the top of the Merrimack lineup, he got graduate student shortstop Mike Forgione to bounce out to second, scoring an unimportant run, and then got Lyne to pop up to second to end the ballgame and send the Ravens spilling out of the first-base dugout.

On the other side of the ledger, Lupi (3-2) needed 88 pitches (56 strikes) just to get through five innings on the mound for Merrimack. He surrendered seven runs (four earned) on nine hits, walked two and struck out four while taking the loss.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce baseball apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).