BOX SCORE WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven baseball team – top seed in the Northeast-10 Southwest Division – defeated fourth-seeded Adelphi by a score of 5-0 on Wednesday in the NE-10 Championship First Round at Frank Vieira Field. The Chargers will host the conference’s Championship Weekend beginning on Thursday.
 
With the postseason victory, New Haven improves to 30-13 and advances to NE-10 Championship Weekend for the second consecutive season. The Chargers also solidified the 11th 30-win season in program history. Adelphi concludes its 2013 campaign at 23-25-1.
 
On the same day that he was named First Team All-Northeast-10, left-hander Pat Simone (Branford, Conn./Branford) fired six shutout innings in which he ceded just two infield hits and three walks while striking out three to improve to 6-1. A third infield hit off of John Melville (Ulster Park, N.Y./Kingston) concluded the Adelphi offensive output as the right-hander picked up three strikeouts in his two innings of relief. Peter Jay (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) struck out the side in perfect fashion to finish off the victory.
 
Andrew Johnson (Branford, Conn./Branford / Wheaton) led the offense with three runs batted in. Kyle Cullen (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) hit a pair of doubles, and #Brendan O”Reilly# also had two of the Chargers’ 10 hits. Joe Romanelli (Baldwin, N.Y./Holy Trinity) added an RBI single, and Chris DeMorais (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. New Haven only went down in order in one inning, and put its leadoff batter aboard in six of eight trips to the plate.
 
The Chargers got on the board in the bottom of the second inning. Cullen legged out a short double to set the table and took third on a balk by Adelphi starter Stephen Bove. The run came home via a sacrifice fly off the bat of Johnson.
 
With Simone keeping the Adelphi hitters at bay, New Haven broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth frame. Zach Collett (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) led off with a solid single up the middle and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Brendon Buckley (Monroe, Conn./Masuk). Stephen Clout (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) was then hit by a pitch with one out and O’Reilly pushed a single through the left side to load the bases. A run came home and the bases remained loaded on a Romanelli single that chased Bove from the game. New pitcher Jeff Andersen promptly walked DeMorais to push another run across before registering the second out of the frame with a strikeout.  The scoring concluded when Johnson stroked an 0-1 pitch into centerfield to drive in two runs.

Now holding a 5-0 lead, Simone got help from the defense in the top of the sixth inning. Clout ran down a fly ball in the right field corner – making a diving catch in foul ground for the second out – and Nick Nunziato (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) fired a throw from deep in the hole at shortstop to end the inning with runners on first and second base.
 
Melville took the ball in the seventh and cruised through the next two innings, and Jay closed the door with three strikeouts in the ninth to cap the 5-0 victory.
 
Bove, who was responsible for all five earned runs, took the loss for Adelphi to drop to 3-3. The right-hander allowed seven hits in 4.1 innings and did not record a walk or a strikeout.
 
The Chargers are slated to host Bentley – the second-seeded team from the NE-10 Northeast Division – in their first game of Championship Weekend on Thursday. Le Moyne and the winner of this evening’s Merrimack at Franklin Pierce contest will complete the four-team field. A complete weekend schedule will be posted on NewHavenChargers.com after it is finalized by the conference office.