STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (11-8, 3-1 GNAC) swept Rivier University (6-16, 1-3 GNAC) in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) baseball doubleheader at Larry Mahaney Diamond on Sunday afternoon. The Monks opened with a 5-1 victory and completed the sweep with a 9-2 victory over the Raiders in the closing contest.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

GAME ONE – SAINT JOSEPH'S 5, RIVIER 1

SJC HIGHLIGHTS

• Senior right fielder Taylor Reuillard (Biddeford, Maine) belted his third home run of the season, a two-run blast
• Junior right fielder Dennis Meehan (Gardiner, Maine) went 2-2 with a run scored
• Junior shortstop Max McCoomb (South Berwick, Maine) was 2-3 with a run
• Junior third baseman Taylor Black (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.) added a single, a run, and two RBI in three at-bats

RIVIER HIGHLIGHTS

• Junior designated hitter Drew Neely (Lakeland, Fla.) was 1-3 with a run scored
• Senior center fielder Taylor Black (West Springfield, Mass.) and senior right fielder Jeremy Ball (Swanzey, N.H.) both recorded singles in the loss

PITCHERS OF RECORD

• Saint Joseph's junior starter Nick Malatesta (Wrentham, Mass.), now 3-1 this spring, allowed a run off three hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 5.1 innings
• Sophomore Marc Poirier (Lunenburg, Mass.) sat all three batters he faced on just eight pitches in one inning of relief and junior southpaw Thomas Fortier (Falmouth, Maine) tossed 0.2 innings with a walk and a punch-out
• Rivier starter Matthew Keefe (Bradford, Mass.) took the loss after yielding five runs off seven hits and a free pass with one strikeout over five frames
• Freshman Kyle Flanagan (Bradford, Mass.) tossed one inning of scoreless relief and fanned one

KEY PLAYS

• The Monks opened the scoring with five runs off five hits and a Rivier error in the bottom of the third when Black plated a pair with a single and Reuillard deposited a two-run homer beyond the right field wall
• The Raiders responded with a run in the sixth, when Neely led off with a single and later scored on a David Pappalardo (Methuen, Mass.) infield ground out

GAME TWO – SAINT JOSEPH'S 9, RIVIER 2

SJC HIGHLIGHTS

• Freshman third baseman Noah McDaniel (Eliot, Maine) was 3-3 with three RBI
• Senior Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) went 2-4 with a run, a double, and an RBI
• Freshman center fielder Anthony DiPrizio (Rochester, N.H.) was 2-4 with a run, a stolen base, and an RBI
• Meehan added a single, two runs, two walks, and a steal in three plate appearances
• Junior first baseman Jameson Collins (Sandown, N.H.) scored a pair of runs

RIVIER HIGHLIGHTS

• Black went 2-4 with two runs and a home run
• Junior first baseman Jacob Rayner (Billerica, Mass.) was 2-3 with a pair of singles

PITCHERS OF RECORD

• Saint Joseph's sophomore Travis Godbout (Portland, Maine) improves to 2-1 on the season after allowing an unearned run off three hits and two walks with seven K's over five innings
• Sophomore righty Steven Albert (Worcester, Mass.) yielded a run off three hits with a strikeout in one inning of relief and senior Corey McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) gave up a hit in an otherwise perfect seventh frame
• Rivier starter Kevin Francis (Cromwell, Conn.) falls to 0-2 after giving up five runs (four earned) off four hits and four walks while fanning two in 2.2 innings
• Senior reliever Spencer Aguilar (Malden, Mass.) surrendered three runs off six hits in 1.2 innings while Charlie Savard (Tyngsboro, Mass.) and Tyler Ferdinand (Middleboro, Mass.) combined to work 1.2 innings of one-run, one-hit relief

KEY PLAYS

• The Monks struck for two runs in the bottom of the second when McDaniel and sophomore catcher Jacob White (Salem, N.H.) registered RBI singles
• St. Joe's tacked on three more runs off three hits and a Rivier error in the third, as Lops roped an RBI double down the right-field line and later scored on a passed ball and McDaniel notched his second run-scoring single of the afternoon
• The Raiders got on the board with a run in the fourth, as Black led off with a single through the left side and later scored on a passed ball
• In the bottom of the fifth, the hosts produced three runs off five hits to earn an 8-1 advantage, as McDaniel, Black, and DiPrizio all rapped RBI singles
• The Raiders countered with a run off three hits in the top of the sixth when Black homered down the left-field line
• The Monks capped the game scoring with a run in the bottom of the sixth when pinch-hitter Greg Emanuelson (Hudson, N.H.) reached on an error and was lifted in favor of pinch-runner Jonathan Panaro (Atkinson, N.H.), who eventually scored on a passed ball

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

With the sweep, Saint Joseph's improves to 22-1 in the history of the series with Rivier University, a team the Monks have now defeated in 17 consecutive meetings dating back to the 2008 campaign.

NEXT!

Saint Joseph's travels to Beverly, Massachusetts on Tuesday to face Endicott College in a single nine-inning game scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. Rivier hosts Newbury College on Tuesday in a non-conference contest slated to start at 7:00 PM.

#GOMONKS

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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.