WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (May 27, 2023) – One more hit.
 
It was all the Sacred Heart University baseball team needed to make things really interesting on Saturday afternoon at Heritage Financial Park. Facing elimination and chasing three runs on the fourth day of the Northeast Conference Championship, the Pioneers loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth. It was not to be though, as Central Connecticut State left-hander Vincent Spizzoucco induced three straight foul pop-outs to end the ball game and send the Blue Devils through to the championship round with a 4-1 victory.
 
Fourth-seeded Sacred Heart – which was picked to finish eighth in the NEC, but took fourth instead -- sees its season draw to a close at 28-30, which represent the most wins for the program since the Pioneers finished 30-28 in 2016. Top-seeded CCSU (34-12) will play second-seeded Wagner at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and must defeat the Seahawks then, and again on Sunday, to claim the NEC title.
 
SHU was chasing a pair of early runs for most of the afternoon as CCSU struck once in the first and again in the second. The Pioneers finally halved the lead in the top of the seventh, when Ryan Donnelly (Fairfield, Conn.) drilled the second pitch of the inning over the fence in the power alley in right-center for a solo home run. It was his second long ball of the tournament and eighth of the season.
 
From there, the Pioneers desperately needed to hang a zero in the bottom of the seventh, but CCSU responded immediately with a pair of pivotal insurance runs. Elliot Good started things with a one-out double over the bag at third and down the left-field line, then moved to third on a single to left by Brady Short. The latter spelled the end of the day for left-hander Michael Attonito (White Plains, N.Y.), who put together one of his strongest outings of the season, as he held the Blue Devil bats to five hits over five innings of relief.
 
However, he would leave two runners on base for graduate student right-hander Tyler Briggs (Franklin, Conn.), who could not get out of the jam. Briggs walked the first man he faced on four pitches, and then surrendered a two-run single back up the middle to Ramon Jimenez, which capped a 4-for-4 day for the first baseman.
 
After going down in order in the eighth, the Pios made their last stand in the top of the ninth inning, and for a moment, it looked as if there was still some magic in the SHU bats. Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) led off, dumped a single into right field and then moved to second on a single back up the middle by Donnelly. Tyler Galletti (Plainview, N.Y.) followed and hit a possible double-play ball to first, but Jimenez's throw pulled the shortstop off the bag to load the bases with nobody out and give Sacred Heart fresh life.
 
Unfortunately for the red and white, Spizzoucco was able to regroup from there to nail down his second save of the season. The southpaw got Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) to foul out to the catcher on the first-base side and induced a foul pop to Jimenez by at first by Joe Emerson (Carlstadt, N.J.) for the second out. Robert Farruggio (Fairfield, Conn.) came up as a pinch hitter and the final hope for the Pios, but he fouled out as well, to the third baseman, for the game's final out.
 
The dramatic finish preserved a win for CCSU right-hander TJ Wainwright (5-1), who went seven strong innings on 102 pitches. He allowed just one run on four hits, walked one and struck out seven.
 
First-year right-hander Mitch Hawkins (Southbury, Conn.) took the ball to open the game for the second straight day for the Pioneers and recorded the first four outs. He was charged with two runs on six hits, walked one and suffered the loss (3-2).