WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Brendon Buckley’s two-out RBI triple in the bottom of the ninth sent the University of New Haven baseball team into extra innings against visiting Pace on Wednesday, but the Setters struck in the 10th frame to take an 8-6 decision at Frank Vieira Field.
With the loss, New Haven falls to 16-9 overall and 4-2 in the Northeast-10 Southwest Division. The Setters claimed sole ownership of first place in the division at 5-1 as a part of a 19-9 overall mark. The Chargers took game one of the three-game series, 4-1, on March 27 in Pleasantville, N.Y.
Buckley’s game-tying three-bagger plated Stephen Clout (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern), who had just sent a 2-2 pitch down the left field line to single home Kyle Cullen (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) and cut the margin of 6-5.
The Setters stranded Buckley on third base to keep the game alive and scratched across a pair of unearned tallies in the top of the 10th. Ian Wutkitsch had an RBI during the extra stanza.
Chris DeMorais (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) doubled to lead off the home half of the 10th inning, and Zach Collett (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) worked a two-out walk to bring the winning run to the plate, but Pace’s Neil Pezzullo came out of the bullpen to get the final out and clinch the 8-6 win for the visitors.
DeMorais led the Chargers’ offense with a 3-for-5 showing at the plate and two runs scored. Cullen hit a third-inning triple as a part of a two-hit, two-run day. Clout and Nick Nunziato (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) each drove in two runs.
On the basepaths, Buckley and Collett each picked up a stolen base.
Taylor Candage started on the mound for New Haven and ceded four earned runs on eight hits in four innings of work. Joey Royer (Westbrook, Maine/Cheverus), Frank Vilacha (Dartmouth, Mass./Dartmouth), Jason Lewicki (Milford, Conn./Foran) and Peter Jay (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) came out of the bullpen and hung zeroes on the board for the next five frames as the Chargers mounted their comeback.
Jay, who struck out the side in a perfect ninth, also worked the 10th inning and took the hard-luck loss to fall to 0-1 despite not surrendering an earned run.
Edward Byrne notched the win out of the Pace bullpen with one inning of work, improving to 3-1. Pezzullo, whose seven prior appearances were all starts for the Setters, recorded his first save with his four-pitch appearance to end the contest.
The Chargers trailed by as many as five runs at 6-1, with a Clout RBI groundout in the third inning serving as the only offense in the early stages of the game. New Haven plated two more in the fourth inning on a two-out, two-run single by Nunziato and scored again in the sixth stanza via an RBI groundout from Andrew Johnson (Branford, Conn./Branford / Wheaton) to set the table for the team’s ninth-inning push.
Today’s game began a four-game homestand and a string of nine consecutive Northeast-10 Southwest Division contests. The Chargers host Le Moyne for a 3 p.m. game on Saturday and a noon doubleheader on Sunday.
