SALISBURY, Md. (May 17, 2024) – For the first time in program history, the Sacred Heart University baseball team is the Northeast Conference regular season champion. The Pioneers needed just one win in Friday's doubleheader at Maryland Eastern Shore to lock up the top spot, but took care of business early at Parker Athletic Complex. SHU plated six runs in the top of the second inning of the first game and never looked back, rolling to an 8-4 victory to clinch the title with a game to play.
 
Sacred Heart (33-21, 25-8 NEC) finished in style, completing the weekend sweep with a 10-5 win in the second game, which ensured the Pios would finish in first place all alone, regardless of what else happens in the NEC this weekend. SHU truly saved the best for last in its final season in the NEC, as the 25 wins and .756 conference winning percentage are both all-time bests for a program wrapping up a 25-season tenure in the league. The team's previous high-water mark was 23-9 (.719), which was accomplished by both the 2011 and 2013 squads, each of which finished second.
 
Head coach Pat Egan guides SHU to its first NEC regular-season flag in just his second year at the helm. The Pioneers are just two seasons removed from a 2022 campaign which saw the club finish 12-41 and in seventh place in a then eight-team NEC, at 9-18. His team dropped just one series in the 11-weekend gauntlet of league play and will head into the postseason winners of 14 of the last 16. Egan previously captured an NEC regular-season title as player at Quinnipiac in 2005. Ironically enough, that championship came at the hands of his current club, as the Bobcats passed SHU on the final weekend of the season that year.
 
A four-time NEC postseason champion (2006, 2011, 2012, 2015), Sacred Heart will open pursuit of its fifth league title at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 23, against an opponent to be determined, on the second day of the NEC Championship. The double-elimination league tournament will be held at Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
 
For UMES (0-48, 0-30 NEC), the day finally marked the end of a long and unfortunate campaign for a team which qualified for the postseason just last year. The Hawks go down as the first baseball team in Division I history to suffer through a winless season.
 
Game 1: Sacred Heart 8, Maryland Eastern Shore 4
 
The Pios wasted no time getting the bats going on Friday, as it was a run in the first and six more in the second to jump out to a 7-0 lead. Dante D'Amore (Southington, Conn.) opened the scoring with a squeeze bunt to score Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) in the first. In the second, John Greene (Naugatuck, Conn.) stroked a two-run double to left-center and Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.) lashed an RBI single to left-center.
 
After an error prolonged the inning, D'Amore returned to the plate and provided the game's keynote address with a three-run home run to center field, his team-leading 10^th of the year. In the last six games, D'Amore has hit four home runs and driven in 13 runs.
 
UMES scored four in the bottom half of the second to cut the gap to 7-4, but that was basically it for scoring in the game. Bronson Taylor cracked a two-out, two-run home run to right field in the frame. It was the fifth of the season for Taylor, who should be a candidate for NEC Rookie of the Year despite the Hawks' ignominious spring.
 
SHU tacked on a run in the eighth on an Alex Ungar (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) double to create the 8-4 final.
 
Right-hander Elijah Foster (Plainfield, N.J.) allowed four runs on six hits, walked two and struck out five over five innings on the mount to pick up the win (5-1). Right-hander Jake McDowell (Brookfield, Conn.) threw four scoreless innings and struck out four to earn his fourth save of the season.
 
Right-hander Brandon Gomez (0-4) surrendered seven runs (four earned) on five hits, walked four and struck out four over five innings for UMES.
 
Game 2: Sacred Heart 10, Maryland Eastern Shore 5
 
UMES opened the scoring in the second game, via a Derek Blackmore RBI single in the bottom of the first, but SHU took control from there. The Pioneers got two in the second, one via a run-scoring single from Tyler Galletti (Plainview, N.Y.) and the other via an error, to take the lead. The Pios opened the gap to 5-1 in the third, as Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) cranked a three-run homer to left-center, his eighth of the campaign.
 
Simonelli added his second long ball of the season in the fourth, a solo shot. He would come back around in the fifth to lift a sacrifice fly and make it 7-1.
 
It was largely academic from there. UMES would close the gap to 8-5 in the seventh inning, but an RBI single from D'Amore in the eighth and a run-scoring double from Dennis Gamester (West Haven, Conn.) in the ninth created the 10-5 final. D'Amore finished the doubleheader with six runs batted in.
 
Right-hander Joe Trombley (Watervliet, N.Y.) threw the first five innings for SHU. He allowed two runs on four hits, walked two, hit a batter and struck out one on the way to the win (3-2). Right-hander Owen MacDonnell (Londonderry, N.H.) recorded the final seven outs to notch his seventh save of the season.
 
Right-hander Cade Williams (0-9) went five innings on the other side for UMES. He surrendered seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits, walked one and struck out two.