CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (April 24, 2021) – After dropping the first game of the day 7-0 and falling behind 5-0 in the second contest, the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball program rallied and used a seven-run third inning to win game two 15-8 to earn a split against DeSales University on the road Saturday.

The Ducks had eight different student-athletes register multi-hit games in the victory while all nine starters recorded at least one hit as they moved to 17-8 in the MAC Freedom this season.

Stevens currently sits in third place in the conference standings heading into its final contests of the regular season on Sunday. The Ducks can finish anywhere from first to fourth in the conference standings depending on Sunday's results from across the conference.

DeSales, meanwhile, remains atop the MAC Freedom with an 18-5 record in conference play. The Bulldogs continue to control their own destiny and need two wins in their next three games to clinch the MAC Freedom regular season title.

In the first contest of the day, the Bulldogs jumped ahead early and remained aggressive throughout the game as they scored a run in four of their six offensive at-bats.

Going up against Stevens starting pitcher Chandler Brierley, DeSales scored first in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly and added another on a throwing error to make the score 2-0.

With two outs in the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs tacked on two more thanks to a two-RBI single off the bat of Robert Lamm and added another on an RBI single from Gavin Zavorski in the fourth to swell the lead to five.

Stevens' biggest scoring threat came in the fifth as Ben Tobio led off with a double and moved to third as a single from Brett Mendez put runners on the corners with one away.

DeSales starting pitcher John Poccia escaped, however, as he got a fly out to end the threat. Poccia (3-2) tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing six hits and striking out eight over seven innings to earn the win.

Another Duck error allowed two more Bulldog runs to cross home plate in the bottom half of the fifth to make the score 7-0 and end the day for Brierley (3-3).

The graduate student from Ridgewood, N.J., allowed seven runs, just three of which were earned, on eight hits while striking out five and issuing four walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Mendez led the way offensively in the loss as he finished 2 for 3 with a walk and posted a 4 for 8 effort with an RBI and a doubleheader across the doubleheader.

Game two started much like the first as DeSales plated four runs in the bottom of the first on two bases loaded singles, a bases loaded walk and a wild pitch.

After the Bulldogs tacked on another in the bottom of the second to make the score 5-0, the Ducks stepped to the plate in the third needing an answer.

The Ducks delivered in a big way with a seven-run inning to take the lead for the first time in the doubleheader.

Nate Zuckerman started the scoring for Stevens with an RBI single and Thomas Paulich followed it up with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to three.

With one away, Johnny Albrecht and Michael Reyes both stepped to the plate and ripped RBI singles in back-to-back at-bats to make the score 5-4.

After a walk and a foul loaded the bases with two away, Chris Silos delivered a clutch RBI single to plate Albrecht and Reyes and give the Ducks the lead.

The big inning did not stop there as Mendez came to the plate two batters later and hit an RBI single of his own to swell the lead to 7-5.

The Ducks tacked on a pair of what would-be crucial insurance runs in the top of the fourth after Reyes and Silos both lined RBI singles to score a pair of runs in the inning and bring the score to 9-5.

The Bulldogs were able to get one back on an error in the fourth and add two more on a two-RBI double off the bat of Zavorski to bring the score to 9-8 in the fifth.

One half inning later, Wall continued his hot streak as he lifted his fourth home run in four games, giving the Ducks a 10-8 edge.

Stevens attempted to best its seven-run third in the seventh, bringing home five runs in the inning, four of which came with two outs.

Paulich started the scoring in the inning with an RBI single into left center before Albrecht lifted a sacrifice fly to center to bring home Christian Kreiser.

A couple of batters later, Tobio hit his second double of the day down the left field line to score a pair and raced home himself on an RBI single by Wall to put the lead at 15-8.

The score would remain the same for the remainder of the game as and Leo Bristow did not allow a single run in each of the last four innings to earn the victory. Bristow (2-3) struck out nine batters across five innings while allowing one run on two hits in five innings of work.

Starting pitcher Roy Iversen did not factor into the decision after giving up seven runs, five of which were earned on four hits and fanning four.

In the win, Paulich, Reyes, Silos and Kreiser all had three-hit games. Silos was also the leading RBI man for Stevens as he went 3 for 5 with three RBIs and a run scored in the game two victory.

The final regular season series for the Ducks concludes Sunday as the doubleheader in Hoboken, N.J., originally scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m. has been moved to 2:00 p.m. due to potential inclement weather. Live stats and video will be available on StevensDucks.com for both games.

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