Ciulla-Hall recorded his 25th career homerun in the bottom of the first inning. (Photo Credit Mary Gettens).

EASTON, Mass. (May 10, 2024) – The Stonehill College baseball team came up short against Northeast Conference opponent Norfolk State, 6-4, Friday afternoon at Lou Gorman Field. With the loss, the Skyhawks drop to 16-25 overall and 11-14 in conference play, while the Spartans improve to 12-36 overall and 7-21 against conference opponents.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Senior Trey Ciulla-Hall and junior Taylor Gaspar recorded their 10th and 12th homeruns of the season, respectively.
• Redshirt sophomore Sam Parks, senior Blaine Lidsky, and postgrad Conor Kiely paved the way for the Skyhawks with two hits apiece.
• Despite taking the loss, junior Ryan Douglas (4-6) struck out a career-high seven batters in 8.0 innings of work.
• Sophomore Justin Journette and senior Manny Jackson launched their respective third and 14th homeruns of the year for the Spartans.  
• Junior Swaroop Pujari finished the day with a game-high three hits for Norfolk State.
• Senior Dalton Barham (4-7) picked up his fourth win of the season for the Spartans after striking out seven and allowing four runs over 7.0 innings on the mound.
• Freshman Ethan Blakeney earned his third save of the season for the Spartans after tossing 2.0 scoreless innings of relief.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Norfolk State came out of the gates strong and jumped out to an early two-run lead after the top half of the first inning. Journette kicked things off for the Spartans, drawing a walk before advancing to second with his fourth stolen base of the season. With Jackson at the plate for NSU, the senior catcher belted an RBI double into the left centerfield gap, scoring Journette and giving the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, freshman Kydese Queen stepped into the box and found an opening between first and second base for a run-scoring single, plating Jackson and extending the NSU advantage to two.

In the bottom half of the first, Ciulla-Hall would continue his stellar hitting at the dish, blasting a solo homerun over the leftfield fence and cutting the Skyhawks early deficit in half. However, a three-run line-drive shot off the scoreboard in left by Journette in the top of the second would give the Spartans a 5-1 lead over Stonehill.

After three straight scoreless half-innings on either side, the Skyhawks would cut the gap to three with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs in the frame, Gaspar stepped up to the dish and belted a solo homerun over the left centerfield fence, marking the fourth combined round-tripper of the game through the first four innings.

In the fifth inning, the Skyhawks and Spartans would trade runs back and forth, playing to a 6-3 contest in favor of NSU heading into the sixth. A solo homerun off the bat of Jackson capped off the scoring for the Spartans in the top of the fifth, before an RBI single into shallow centerfield by Kiely answered Jackson's round-tripper and kept the Stonehill deficit at three.

Douglas, reentering for a sixth inning of work, would take the hill and retire the side in order, allowing his offense to head back into the dugout, looking to mount a comeback. After redshirt junior Jack Thorbahn led off the bottom half working walk, Lidsky would dig out an infield single to short to get two runners on base with no one out in the sixth. Following a groundball double play turned by Queen at third, senior shortstop Jack Marshall would lace the first pitch he saw into left centerfield, scoring Lidsky and cutting the gap to 6-4.

Despite Douglas setting down 11 batters in a row after Jackson's solo blast in the fifth, the NSU pitching and two-run lead proved too much to overcome for the Skyhawks, as the Spartans walked away victorious by a final score of 6-4. 

Marshall improved his hitting streak to seven games with his RBI double in the sixth inning. (Photo Credit Mary Gettens).

INSIDE THE BOX & NOTES

• Ciulla-Hall launched his 25th career homerun in the bottom of the first inning.
• Ciulla-Hall and Gaspar each improved their on-base streaks to 24 and 27 games, respectively, while Parks and junior Dylan Zemotel have now each reached base in 16 consecutive games. 
• Marshall is now riding a seven-game hitting streak after finishing the day 1-for-3 with an RBI double.
• Freshman Zach Brockner pitched the final inning in relief for the Skyhawks.

UP NEXT

Stonehill (16-25, 11-14 NEC) will host Norfolk State in game two of its three-game NEC series on Saturday. First pitch from Lou Gorman Field between the Skyhawks and Spartans is set for 1 p.m.

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