SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Southern Connecticut State University baseball wrapped up its Northeast 10 Conference Southwest Division series at American International with a 16-8 win in the fourth game of the weekend, of which the Owls took three games. Southern improves to 29-10 overall and 13-6 in the NE10 while AIC drops to 11-31 overall and 5-18 in conference play.

The Owls scored 16 runs on 17 hits, highlighted by a 3-for-6 day by DeMartino in which he drove in four runs while Connor Goggin was 3-for-5 with three RBI. Billy Sullivan and Andrew Eng also collected three hits each, while both scored three runs as well, with Eng also driving in two runs.

Alec Erskine won his third consecutive start despite giving up seven runs on 10 hits over five innings. Erskine did however strikeout seven, against one walk. Tyshaun Diaz made his second career pitching appearance, and held AIC to one run on four hits over 3 1/3 while striking out five. Spencer Fox spun the final 2/3, retiring both batters he faced.

The Owls trailed early as the Yellow Jackets took a 5-0 lead after the second inning. In the top of the third, Billy Sullivan kicked-off a three-run inning with a two-out double. After Andrew Eng was intentionally walked, Connor Goggin singled to third to load the bases. Mike DeMartino then singled to right field to scored Sullivan and Eng before Jack Drewry drove home Goggin with a single to cut the Yellow Jackets' lead to two runs, 5-3.

Southern's offense continued to roll in the fourth inning as the Owls plated five runs to take an 8-5 lead. After Zach Bedryczuk reached on an error, Tony Zambito and Sullivan followed with singles to load the bases before Eng doubled down the right-field line to score Bedryczuk and Zambito. After a passed ball moved Eng and Sullivan up, Goggin singled to short to scored Eng and then Martino singled up the middle to score Goggin.

Leading 8-5, the Owls gave up two runs in the bottom of the fourth as the Yellow Jackets pulled within a run, 8-7. In the fifth, Chad Fedeli lead off with a single and stole second before Dave Christoforo walked. Both runners moved up on a passed ball, with Fedeli coming in to score and Christoforo moving to third. Bedryczuk then reached on an error and stole second before another passed ball scored Christoforo and moved Bedryczuk to third. After Zambito walked and stole second, Eng was intentionally walked ago, setting up Goggin for the sacrifice fly to score Bedryczuk and give the Owls an 11-7 lead.

The Owls' bats stayed lively in the eight as they manufactured three more runs to take a 14-7 lead, highlighted by a RBI double by Christoforo. Goggin and DeMartino also drove in runs in the top of the ninth before AIC got one back in the bottom of the inning.

Southern returns to action on Wednesday, May 4 when its hosts Adelphi for the fourth game of their NE10 series at 3:30 p.m. at The Ballpark at SCSU. The Owls wrap-up the regular season at home against New Haven on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7, with Senior Day festivities set for prior to the start of Saturday's doubleheader.

NOTES

• Southern stole a program record nine bases in the game, highlighted by Fedeli and Sullivan both stealing two bases, while Zambito, Eng, Goggin, Demartino and Bedryczuk also swiped a bag.
• It was the first time in program history that seven different players stole a base in a game as well.
• Sullivan extended his team-best activing hitting streak to 13 games, which is the second-longest of the season behind Eng's 16-game streak. Sullivan has also reached base safely in 21-straight games while Eng's on-base streak sits at 26-straight games.
• The duo have been battling for the top batting average on the team all season. To date, through 39 games, Sullivan is hitting .376 (56-149) while Eng is hitting .374 (52-139).
• Sullivan leads the team in hits (56) and runs (53) while Eng leads the Owls with 14 doubles, nine home runs, 50 RBi as well as a .712 slugging percentage and a team-best 30 walks and .503 on-base.
• For the series against AIC, Sullivan was 7-for-17 with three RBI and six runs scored. Eng was 7-for-15 with four RBI and four runs scored.
• Chad Fedeli also hit safely in each game, totaling 7-for-16 for the weekend with five runs scored and five RBI. For the year, Fedeli is hitting .298 (36-121) with 20 runs scored.
• DeMartino was 7-for-18 with six runs and five RBI against the Yellow Jackets, while also collected his 200^th career hit. For the year, DeMartino is hitting .297 (43-145) with five home runs, 41 RBI and 35 runs scored with 10 doubles.
• Zambito continues to move on the base paths as he swiped his 32^nd base of the year on Sunday. He trails single-season record holder Mike Diaz who stole 39 bases in 2008.
• Zambito is also hitting .292 with 41 runs scored with a .449 on-base percentage as the Owls' lead-off hitting with 24 walks and a team-high 11 hit-by-pitches.
• Connor Googin drove in three runs in a game for the third time this season on Sunday. For the weekend, Goggin drove in four total runs with seven runs scored after going 6-for-17.