For Immediate Release
May 8, 2012
Chargers freshman lefthander goes the distance in
three-hitter as Northeast-10 Baseball Championship begins
Pleasantville, N.Y. – Fourth-seeded University of New Haven got a complete-game, three-hit shutout from freshman lefthander Joey Royer to defeat top-seeded Pace University on Tuesday afternoon, 6-0, as first-round play of the 2012 Northeast-10 Conference Baseball Championship got underway.
With the win, New Haven advances to championship weekend, which will follow a double-elimination format and take place Friday through Sunday.
Royer, who was making just his third start, retired 15 of the last 16 he faced while striking out four and walking two in his nine innings of work. The freshman faced just four over the minimum in his first career complete game after entering Tuesday with a 2.12 ERA over 34.0 innings this season.
New Haven, which scored once in the first and three times in the fourth, got a three-hit performance from leadoff hitter Stephen Clout, who also had two RBI and scored three times.
Cory Carr, Ryan Brockett (pictured), Andrew Johnson and Chris DeMorais had two hits apiece in a 14-hit attack, as Pace starting pitcher Neil Pezzullo allowed four earned on 10 hits over 6.1 innings.
Johnson plated the Chargers first run with a first-inning sacrifice fly, and Clout extended the lead in the fourth with a two-run double before he scored on Carr single.
Demorais delivered an RBI single in the seventh and Brendon Buckley's bases-loaded walk plated another in the eighth.
New Haven, out of the Southwest Division, will take on the winner of No. 3 Stonehill College and No. 2 Franklin Pierce University this weekend in a crossover game.
WEATHER UPDATE: Inclement weather on Tuesday forced three Northeast-10 Baseball Championship first-round contests to be pushed back to Wednesday. In the other Southwest Division contest, No. 3 Southern Connecticut State University will travel to No. 2 Le Moyne College at 12:00 p.m. In the two Northeast Division games, top-seeded Saint Anselm College will host fourth-seeded Bentley University at 12:00 p.m. and Stonehill will travel to Franklin Pierce for a 4:00 p.m. first pitch.
The Northeast-10 is an association of 16 NCAA Division II colleges and universities located in New England and New York that is committed to supporting balanced academic and athletic opportunities for more than 5,500 student-athletes. Each year, 4,000 of those student-athletes compete in Conference championships in 23 sports, making the NE-10 the largest DII conference in the country. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the Northeast-10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.
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