SALISBURY, Md. (May 16, 2024) – In baseball, they call it a "Maddux" if the pitcher can shutout the other team using fewer than 100 pitches. The stat is named after Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, who accomplished the feat a record 13 times at the Major League level.
 
On Thursday afternoon, right-hander Jake Babuschak (Jobstown, N.J.) fired one in his final regular-season start for the Sacred Heart University baseball team. Ninety-six pitches. Seventy-one strikes. Ten strikeouts. Two hits. Two walks. One hit batsman.
 
No runs.
 
The game still managed to take 2 hours and 45 minutes, but that was more thanks to the Sacred Heart offense. The outcome was never in doubt at Parker Athletic Complex, as the Pioneers hammered out 16 hits – including a season-high four home runs – and scored 18 runs for the second straight game, as they cruised to an 18-0 win at Maryland Eastern Shore in the opener of the final Northeast Conference series of the year.
 
The two teams will meet twice on Friday, in a doubleheader beginning at noon, to close out the series. First-place SHU (31-21, 23-8 NEC) is still one game clear of LIU after the Sharks won at Coppin State on Thursday. The Pios need just one win on Friday to wrap up the program's first-ever NEC regular-season title.
 
For Babuschak (8-3), the victory was the 20^th of his career. Combined with his 200^th career strikeout three weeks ago, he became just the fifth pitcher in Sacred Heart history to eclipse both the 20-win and 200-strikeout career milestones.
 
Babuschak was the story throughout, as he needed to face only 31 batters to record 27 outs on the afternoon. He retired the first seven batters of the game before allowing a one-out single in the third, but even that ended with an out, as Anders Brown was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Babuschak would not work with a runner on base until a two-out single in the fourth, and he left him standing at first base.
 
Babuschak would retire 10 straight after the fourth-inning single, before he hit a batter to open the eighth. UMES (0-46, 0-28 NEC) would finally get a runner to scoring position when a passed ball followed. The Hawks would not have a runner reach third base in the contest.
 
The 10 strikeouts matched Babuschak's career high, set earlier this season against Norfolk State. It was his third career complete game and his second shutout, as he also opened the conference campaign with a 106-pitch, four-hit shutout in a 2-0 blanking of Fairleigh Dickinson on March 8.
 
Meanwhile, Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) provided the only two runs Babuschak would need in the top of the first inning, when he cracked a two-run home run to left-center, his team-leading ninth of the season. D'Amore would drive in four on the day, including an RBI groundout in the seventh, which was his 100^th career RBI.
 
SHU was held off the board in the second, but then scored in each of the final seven innings of the game. It was a run apiece in the third, fourth and fifth, before a four-run sixth really broke things open. Five more in the seventh pushed the lead into double digits, before one in the eighth and three in the ninth created the 18-0 final.
 
Six different Pios had at least two hits on the afternoon. Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) matched D'Amore with four runs batted in, while Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) and Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.) scored four runs apiece. In addition to D'Amore, Donohue, Kovalchik and Tim McGuire (Portsmouth, R.I.) all socked home runs.
 
UMES left-hander Eric Elliott (0-3) needed 109 pitches (63 strikeouts) to get through five innings and really filled out his line in the box score while taking the loss. The junior surrendered eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits, walked four, hit a batter, threw a wild pitch and struck out six.