DUDLEY, Mass. – After a tough 5-4 loss in game one, the Nichols College baseball team's offense exploded for 12 runs on 15 hits in a 12-4 victory in game two to earn a doubleheader split with Eastern Nazarene College on Saturday afternoon in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action in Dudley, Mass.
 
The Bison slide to 9-23 overall and 3-7 in the CCC, while the Lions move to 16-14 and 1-9 in conference games. Nichols wraps up a busy weekend on Sunday afternoon when they host No. 30-ranked Endicott College in a doubleheader starting at 12:00 p.m.
 
Game One – Eastern Nazarene 5, Nichols 4 (8 Innings)
The Bison were able to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh, but Eastern Nazarene plated a run in the top of the eighth to sneak by Nichols, 5-4, in the opener.

Sophomore Kyle Bouchard went 3-for-4 with two RBI, while senior Nick Roy went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead the Bison offense. Junior Joe Assenza also had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, with senior Cam Cook and freshman Nathaniel Cormier each going 1-for-4 with a run scored, while Cook also drove in a run. Sophomore Christian Naccari (1-for-4) and senior Chris Anderson (1-for-3) also had hits for the Bison. 

Senior Vincent Amato pitched a complete game for the Bison, allowing five runs on 10 hits with two walks and a strikeout in eight innings of work. 

Senior Zach Zaino went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, an RBI, and a stolen base to fuel the Lions attack. Sophomore Stephen Pesce went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while junior Anthony Esposito was a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored. 

Senior Brent Houle picked up his third win of the season, giving up four runs on 11 hits with seven strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Sophomore Briley Seiter got the final two outs of the eighth inning to earn his second win of the season. 

With one out in the first, Roy and Cook hit back-to-back singles before Bouchard doubled to the gap in left-center to make it a 1-0 game and push Cook to third base. The senior would come in to score on an RBI groundout by Joe Assenza to give the Bison an early 2-0 advantage. 

The Lions tied the game in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of a wild pitch to score its first run of the game before sophomore Dylan Louviaux knotted the game at 2-2 with an RBI single through the right side.  

Eastern Nazarene took its first lead of the game in the top of the sixth when Zaino hit a homerun to center to put the Lions in front 3-2. They would add an insurance run in the top of the seventh as they scored another run on a wild pitch to make it a 4-2 game. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Cormier got on base with a one-out bunt single and Roy followed with a double to right-center. Cook made it a one-run game with an RBI groundout, and Bouchard followed with an RBI single through the right side to tie the game at 4-4 and force extra innings. 

Zaino struck again in the top of the eighth, leading off the inning with a single to center and then stealing second base to get into scoring position. Pesce delivered what proved to be the game-winning RBI single up the middle to plate Zaino and put the Lions in front 5-4. 

Nichols was able to get a runner in scoring position in their half of the eighth, but came away empty handed as Seiter forced a pop-out to end the game. 

Game Two: Nichols 12, Eastern Nazarene 4
The Nichols offense bookended four-run innings in the first and sixth inning to blow past the Lions in game two, 12-4.
 
Bouchard had another 3-for-4 game with two RBI and a run scored, while freshman Alexander Stroshine went 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored. Roy and Anderson each went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Christian Naccari went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Cam Cook went 1-for-4 with an RBI, while Nathaniel Cormier was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Assenza went 1-for-2 with two runs scored.
 
Freshman Justin Hurley improved to 3-2 on the year, allowing four runs (three earned) on 12 hits with a walk and three strikeouts in a complete-game, 7.0 inning outing.
 
Zaino led the Eastern Nazarene offense again, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Louviaux was 3-for-3 with an RBI, while Pesce went 1-for-4 with two RBI.
 
Junior Xavier Faria took the loss for the Lions, allowing six runs on seven hits in 1.2 innings of work. Seiter tossed the final 4.1, giving up six runs (four earned) on eight hits.
 
The Bison opened up a 4-0 lead in the first as Bouchard and Anderson had RBI singles before Naccari drove in a pair with a two-run single of his own. The Lions would get one back in the top of the second, but an RBI single from Cook followed by a ground-rule RBI double from Bouchard extended the lead to 6-1.
 
The two teams traded runs in the third inning to make it a 7-2 lead for the Bison, but the Lions got a two-run double from Pesce in the fifth to make it interesting and cut the Nichols lead to 7-4. Roy answered for the Bison in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single down the line in right to double up the Lions at 8-4.
 
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Stroshine put the game away for good when he smoked a double to the gap in right-center, allowing all three runners to cross the plate and put Nichols in front 11-4. Cormier would plate Stroshine with an RBI single through the left side as the Bison cruised to the 12-4 victory.
 
All-Time Series
Saturday marked the 63rd meeting between the two programs and Nichols leads the all-time series, 40-23.