UNIONDALE, N.Y. – A complete game shutout from graduate righty Drew Silverman (Commack, N.Y./Commack) highlighted the day as the New Haven baseball team picked up a 7-0 win in the opening game before falling 3-1 to Molloy ending its 2024 campaign. With the split decision on Saturday, the Chargers close out the 2024 season with a 31-24 overall record, the first 30 win season for the Blue and Gold since a 2018 campaign that wrapped up 39-12.
Silverman's success on the mound included six strikeouts while he forced 15 flyouts and six groundouts. The complete game outing for the Commack, N.Y. native come in just his third collegiate start, with his two other starts also coming this season.
At the plate, the Chargers started early, plating four runs in the first inning and never looked back. The first two runs came by way of free pass RBI's for Cole Maucere (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) and Casey Cerruto (Torrington, Conn./St. Paul Catholic) while senior Noah Budzik (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) came up clutch with a two-out two RBI single as the Chargers jumped out to the early lead. They would go on to add one more run in the seventh and two in the ninth for the final tally.
Overall at the plate, it was the leadoff bat of Nick Ungania (Mineola, N.Y./Chaminade) who led the way as he finished with two hits in five at bats, with his two hits part of six total for the Chargers who also walked five times. Budzik's six RBI led the way for New Haven, while Matt McIntire (Williamstown, N.J./Williamstown) and Aedan Forde (Massapequa Park, N.Y./St. John the Baptist) added one each to go along with Budzik, Maucere and Cerruto's.
In the nightcap, the Lions struck first with a single run in the third and it remained that way until the eighth when an error allowed two more runs to cross the plate. The Chargers lone tally came in the bottom of the eighth on a single to right from Forde who closed out the day matching Budzik with two RBI's, his split between the two games.
On the mound in game two, rookie starter Matthew Gatti suffered the loss as he wraps up the season 6-4 overall. The righthander closed out his day pitching six innings, allowing the single run, unearned, on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts. Jafar Vohra (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) closed out the final three innings for the Chargers, surrendering a pair of unearned runs on one hit and two walks, with one strikeout.
