BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven baseball team locked up the top seed in the Northeast-10 Southwest Division with a sweep of Adelphi on Saturday afternoon at Frank Vieira Field. The Chargers took game one, 7-6, in 12 innings and grabbed the nightcap by a score of 9-2.
 
New Haven erased deficits of 4-0 and 6-3 in game one and trailed 2-0 in the second game. This season, the Chargers have won 13 games in which their opponent scored the first run.
 
With the sweep, New Haven finishes the regular season at 29-13 overall and 15-6 in the NE-10 Southwest Division. The Chargers are officially the co-champions of the division alongside Pace, though New Haven earned the No. 1 seed in the NE-10 Championship by virtue of winning the season series with the Setters. Adelphi heads to the postseason at 23-24-1 on the season with an 11-10 divisional mark.
 
The Chargers and fourth-seeded Panthers will meet again on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the Northeast-10 Championship First Round at Frank Vieira Field. Should New Haven win its First Round game, UNH will host the weekend portion of the NE-10 Championship from May 9-11.
 
In game one, Brendan O’Reilly’s game-tying single with two outs in the ninth frame and walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning capped the first five-hit day for a Charger since Ken Appel had five base-knocks against Molloy on April 25, 2007. O’Reilly went 5-for-6 with three RBI in the opener.
 
Overall in the twin bill, Brendon Buckley (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) went 5-for-8 with five runs scored, two RBI, a stolen base and two walks to round out his on-base percentage for the day at .700. Stephen Clout (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) was 2-for-4 in each end of the double-dip with a pair of two-run doubles in the second game. Zach Collett (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook), Chris DeMorais (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) and Joe Romanelli (Baldwin, N.Y./Holy Trinity) each drove in a run in the sweep.
 
On the mound, Peter Jay (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) turned in his longest outing of the season with three innings of hitless relief to earn the game-one win. Jay (2-1) issued one walk and struck out three batters. Henry Hirsch (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) started the contest on the bump, with Connor Moriarty (Branford, Conn./Branford) and Jason Lewicki (Milford, Conn./Foran) bridging the gap to Jay with scoreless stints out of the bullpen.
 
In game two, Joey Royer (Westbrook, Maine/Cheverus) ceded just two unearned runs to improve to 3-3 after six innings of action. John Melville (Ulster Park, N.Y./Kingston) fired a scoreless seventh inning, and Brian Caselli (Stratford, Conn./Stratford) notched the final six outs of the sweep.
 
Game 1
Adelphi jumped on top in the top of the second inning with four runs. Ray Triano beat out a potential inning-ending double play to push the first run across and three consecutive RBI singles by Vincent Sharkey, Brandon Stahl and John Campbell ran the Panthers’ advantage to 4-0.
 
With Hirsch settling in to maintain a manageable deficit, the Chargers bats finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth frame. Collett was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and Buckley legged out an infield hit on a sacrifice bunt attempt that resulted in a run on an errant throw. After Buckley came home on a wild pitch, a squeeze bunt from Romanelli pushed across another run to trim the score to 4-3.
 
The Panthers responded with two runs in the sixth on RBI by Kevin Hutzel and Tirano, taking a 6-3 lead into stretch time.
 
Buckley led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single and took second on a Clout sacrifice bunt. O’Reilly followed with an RBI single and then stole second base. DeMorais cut the margin to 6-5 with a two-out base-hit to score O’Reilly.
 
The 6-5 deficit held into the ninth inning, meaning that New Haven would need to complete its comeback against Adelphi closer Dillon McNamara – the NE-10 leader with 13 saves who had not allowed an earned run this season. Buckley started the offense with a one-out walk and stole second base. With two down, O’Reilly delivered the game-tying hit with a single plating Buckley to force extra innings with the score tied, 6-6.
 
Jay did his part by continuing to post zeroes during the extra sessions, and the Chargers came through with the game-winning tally in the bottom of the 12th. Nick Nunziato (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Collett. He took third on a Buckley flyout and, after a pitching change, the Panthers issued an intentional walk to Clout after falling behind 2-0 on the Chargers’ leadoff batter. The decision brought O’Reilly to the plate, and he cashed in again with a base hit down the left field line that scored Nunziato and gave the Chargers a walk-off, 7-6 victory.
 
Vincent Caputo took the loss for Adelphi, falling to 3-4.
 
Game 2
The Chargers found themselves playing from behind once again, as Adelphi scored a pair of runs in the top of the second inning. However, those unearned tallies would be the only Panthers’ runs to cross the plate in the nightcap.
 
New Haven claimed the lead in the fourth inning. DeMorais led off with a single and advanced to second base by on a Kyle Cullen (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) sacrifice. After Andrew Johnson (Branford, Conn./Branford / Wheaton) walked, Collett stroked a two-out single to put the Chargers on the board. The two-out rally continued as Buckley singled home a run and Clout followed with a two-run two-bagger to swing the advantage to New Haven at 4-2.
 
Five more runs came around to score in the sixth inning. Johnson and Nunziato walked to start the action and Collett reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases with no outs. Buckley followed with an RBI single and Clout tacked on his second two-run double of the game to extend the lead to 7-2. A wild pitch plated Buckley, and O’Reilly capped the scoring with an RBI groundout to bring the score to its eventually 9-2 final.
 
Jimmy Milani started for the Panthers and was tagged with the loss. The right-hander, who dropped to 3-3, was charged with the first four New Haven runs of the game.

Prior to today's twinbill, the Chargers honored its four seniors who were appearing at Frank Vieira Field for the final time in the regular season: Clout, Jay, Romanelli and Taylor Candage (Portland, Maine/Deering). Candage did not appear in today's action after starting and earning the win with six innings of work against LIU Post on Wednesday.
 
More details surrounding Tuesday’s Northeast-10 Championship First Round meeting between the Chargers and Panthers will be announced as soon as they are finalized by the conference office.