BOX SCORE MANCHESTER, N.H. – The University of New Haven baseball team fell to host Southern New Hampshire, 9-0, on opening day of the NCAA Division II East Region Championship in Manchester, N.H. The Chargers – the Northeast-10 Champions – are the third seed in the regional.
 
New Haven (33-15) will play sixth-seeded Franklin Pierce tomorrow at 3 p.m. in an elimination game for the Chargers. The Ravens upset top-seed Wilmington in the opening game of the regional. Despite playing at SNHU’s home field, The Chargers batted in the bottom of the innings this evening as the higher-seeded team.
 
Fourth-seed Southern New Hampshire (34-17) will advance in the winner’s bracket to meet fifth-seeded Pace.
 
Brendan O’Reilly, Joe Romanelli (Baldwin, N.Y./Holy Trinity), Nick Nunziato (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) and Brendon Buckley (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) each singled for New Haven. O’Reilly also swiped his team-leading 26th base of the season, and Kyle Cullen (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) stole a bag as well.
 
Junior Mendez worked the first seven innings for SNHU to earn the win. The First Team All-Northeast-10 right-hander scattered four hits and a walk with nine strikeouts.
 
The Penmen got off to a fast start as the first four batters all worked walks to push a run across. Andy Lalli then lined a sacrifice fly to centerfield to give Southern New Hampshire a quick 2-0 lead. After a single reloaded the bases, a wild pitch plated a third run. Joey Royer (Westbrook, Maine/Cheverus) came out of the bullpen and picked up a strikeout and a pop-up to maintain the deficit at 3-0.
 
SNHU started the second frame with back-to-back triples, extending the margin to 4-0 before Royer bounced back to set down the heart of the Penmen lineup. The southpaw followed with a perfect third frame, and a diving catch by O’Reilly on the warning track saved two runs in the top of the fourth. However, New Haven was unable to string hits together as the shutout remained intact into the fifth inning.
 
The hosts got on the board again in the top of the fifth as New Haven issued a bases-loaded walk for the second time in the contest. The Chargers also committed a pair of errors in the frame as, despite a great defensive effort on a 9-4-2 putout at the plate, the Penmen broke the game open with five runs to take a 9-0 advantage that hold up as the final score.
 
The loss went to Henry Hirsch (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale), who was charged with the first three Penmen runs. Royer worked the next 4.2 frames, followed by four scoreless innings by Taylor Candage (Portland, Maine/Deering).
 
New Haven is in the midst of its 28th NCAA regional appearance and 33rd national postseason overall. The Chargers have made 17 trips to the College World Series.