RINDGE, N.H. (May 1, 2022) -- It was all downhill after the Senior Day ceremony for the Franklin Pierce University baseball team on an otherwise resplendent Sunday afternoon at Pappas Field. Junior right-hander Danny Gracia (Wilmington, Mass.) left in the third inning with an apparent injury, and things got ugly from there in the weekend finale against No. 11/13 nationally ranked Southern New Hampshire. It took nine Ravens pitchers a combined 216 pitches to get through the afternoon, as the Penmen sounded off for 19 hits on the way to a 20-6 win to take three out of four in the intrastate rivalry.

With the loss, Franklin Pierce falls to 24-14 (12-8 NE10), while SNHU improves to 33-8 (17-3 NE10). The Ravens will close out the regular season with four games at Saint Michael's during the coming week. Doubleheaders are scheduled for 1 p.m. on both Wednesday and Thursday at Doc Jacobs Field in Colchester, Vt.

After SNHU opened the scoring with a single run in the top of the second, Gracia issued a walk to sophomore Danniel Rivera to open the top of the third. He then delivered a first-pitch strike to sophomore Christian Mercedes, but came out of the game immediately after with an apparent injury, and the wheels fell off for Franklin Pierce from there.

The Penmen would go on to plate four in the third against junior right-hander Ryan Mueller (Lynbrook, N.Y.) and four more in the fourth, against a combination of freshman right-hander Esteban Rivera III (Hamden, Conn.) and sophomore right-hander Jackson Walker (Phippsburg, Maine). In the third, senior Dakota Mulcay socked his fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot estimated at 365 feet to right field. Sophomore Cam Caraher followed immediately and made it back-to-back homers, with a tape-measure job of 415 feet to right field and into the midst of an Ultimate Frisbee tournament on the adjacent Sodexo Field.

Franklin Pierce put together a five-spot in the bottom of the fourth to cut the gap down momentarily, to 9-5. Junior Max Gebauer (Guilderland, N.Y.) drilled his first home run as a Raven, a two-run shot of 385 feet into the power alley in left center. Four batters later, sophomore Randy Flores (Brooklyn, N.Y.) hit a towering fly ball which narrowly cleared the fence in right, for a three-run dinger estimated at 330 feet, his sixth of the campaign.

SNHU then proceeded to seize control of the game for good, with seven runs in the top of the fifth. The inning featured just one extra-base hit, as the Penmen were aided by two walks and a hit batsman, to go with four singles and a double. Caraher and graduate student Idelson Taveras both provided two-run singles in the frame.

Franklin Pierce picked up a run in the fifth on a leadoff homer by graduate student Charles Lebron (Brooklyn, N.Y.), his seventh of the year. SNHU tacked on one in the sixth and three in the seventh to win going away, 20-6.

Gracia (3-2) was ultimately charged with two runs on two hits, walked one, hit a batter and struck out two over two-plus innings of work while suffering the loss. From there, eight other Ravens combined to cede 18 runs (17 earned) on 17 hits, with four walks, four hit batsmen and eight strikeouts over the remaining seven innings.

Despite the big lead, the SNHU starter could not get through five innings to earn himself a win, as sophomore right-hander Nick Assad left after just 3.2 innings with a no-decision. He threw 57 pitches (40 strikes), allowed four runs on five hits, walked two and struck out three. Graduate student right-hander Taylor Lepard (3-0) threw the next 3.1 innings, allowed two runs on three hits and struck out five to pick up the win in relief.