Baseball swings way to split in New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - In a four-game weekend that found a way to conclude on Marathon Monday, the American International College baseball team split two pairs of games with Northeast-10 Conference rivals Southern New Hampshire University and Saint Anselm College, with scores of 14-6 and 2-10 against the Penmen on Sunday, April 14, and 17-3 and 5-7 against the Hawks on Monday, April 15.

AIC is now 11-21 overall and 5-11 in the NE10.

In game one against the Penmen, Chad Lavelle started the scoring in the first with an RBI single; two batters later, Shea Cucinotta added another with a hit of his own, and Tyler Ziemak scored to make it 3-0 after an error at shortstop allowed Armani Marcano to reach. The Penmen scored one in their half of the frame on an error, but AIC poured it on from there; Kiernan Caffrey started the scoring in the second with an RBI single, followed by an RBI groundout for Josh Frometa and another error at short bringing Caffrey home; in the third, Owen Clancy took one deep for a pair.

The Penmen tried cutting into it a bit, getting the score to 8-2 and then 8-3 by the fifth, but Chad Lavelle launched his fifth of the year, scoring Haker as well, to extend the edge to 10-3. The hosts plated three in their half, but Clancy went yard again in the seventh, and Haker smashed a two-run shot in the eighth to put it out of reach. AIC's final run came in the eighth on a pickoff throw gone wrong that allowed Lavelle to come in.

If game one was all AIC, the Penmen made sure the second game was theirs. The home squad put a snowman on the board in the first, and AIC could not come back. Clancy's two-out, two-run single in the seventh prevented a shutout in the 10-2 defeat. 

The Yellow Jackets came out swinging in their first matchup with the Hawks as well, as Ziemak whacked a two-run double in the first. That stood until the fourth when Caffrey drove in a run with a single, and then in the fifth, Ziemak bunted in Lavelle and Cucinotta hit a grounder that scored Haker. Chad Lavelle drove his brother Ryan Lavelle in in the sixth with a groundout. 

The Hawks snapped the shutout with a two-run home run in the sixth, but the Yellow Jackets flexed in the seventh with back-to-back multirun plate appearances thanks to Frometa and Haker singling to bring in two each, a sac fly by Chad Lavelle, and a Ziemak home run for six runs in the frame. They added four more in the ninth; Cucinotta drove in a run, as did Clancy, before Ryan Lavelle closed in style with a two-run shot for the 17-3 final.

As with the previous series, AIC conceded big early, with three Hawks runs in the first and four in the second, but AIC countered more rapidly.  A sacrifice fly by Ziemak scored a run in the third, as did a wild pitch with Frometa at third base. In the following inning, Caffrey was plunked with the bases loaded, Chad Lavelle followed with an infield hit, and Ziemak walked to force another run in. However, AIC did not score again, falling 7-5.

The team will return home to face Franklin Pierce University on Saturday, April 20.