HOBOKEN, N.J. (March 14, 2021) – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team picked up right where they left off Saturday, pounding out 31 total runs on 30 hits to complete the four-game sweep of Delaware Valley University Sunday at Dobbelaar Baseball Field, winning game one 14-0 and following it up with a 17-2 win in game two.

The Ducks were dominant from the first pitch, plating 12 total runs in the first inning of game one and going ahead 5-0 after two innings of game two to move to 6-0 for the first time since at least the 1960 season.

In total, Stevens finished the four-game set with 57 runs and scored in double figures in each of the contests. The Ducks outscored Delaware Valley 57-12 and 42-4 over the last three contests.

"Our team put together close to a complete weekend winning all four games, which was great to see," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "Six games into the season our coaching staff thinks we have a pretty good grasp of what we can do well as a team and also some things we may need to work on over the coming weeks."

Offensively, Stevens had a host of different players perform well in the doubleheader as seven different student-athletes had at least one multi-hit game, led by Gannon Kenney-McGowan who finished the day 5 for 8 with three RBIs, two doubles and three runs scored.

With the wind swirling all-day, the Ducks took advantage of the weather as they finished the day with 11 extra-base hits while limiting the Aggies to just two.

On the bump, Stevens got a stellar start out of Chandler Brierley as he tossed 5.0 shutout innings, giving up just one hit and striking out eight while walking just three. Both Mark DeCiccio and Axel Johnson, who made his collegiate debut, followed Brierley up by not allowing a hit in their individual single innings to clinch the second shutout of the year for Stevens.

In game number two it was more of the same from a starting pitching perspective as Ryan Shea picked up the win on the mound after giving up no runs on five hits with five strikeouts. Out of the bullpen, the group of Jacob Buurman, Mike Faria, Eli Zuckerman and Stephen Willey finished things off, combining to throw 4.0 innings while allowing four hits and two runs.

The 12-run inning in the first contest was one to be remembered. After Nate Zuckerman singled and got the scoring going by coming home on a wild pitch, Kenney-McGowan delivered an RBI single into left field to put the Ducks up 2-0.

Three batters later, Chris Zickert was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home another and Chris Davis and Brett Mendez followed with back-to-back RBI singles to push the edge to five.

After Zuckerman turned the lineup over with a sacrifice fly to plate Davis, the Ducks broke the game wide open with a wild sequence of events as Ryan Wall, Thomas Paulich and Kenney-McGowan all hit back-to-back-to-back RBI ground-rule doubles to push the lead to 10-0.

First-year Johnny Albrecht then put an exclamation point on the big inning as he deposited his first collegiate home run over the left field fence.

The 12 runs were more than enough for Brierley on the hill as he breezed through the next four innings on the hill facing just four batters over the minimum.

Kenney-McGowan remained hot a bit later in the contest as he push the Duck lead to 13 with an RBI double to bring home Zuckerman. Christian Kreiser followed with a sacrifice fly and brought home Michael Reyes to make the score 14-0, where it would stay the rest of the way.

In the first game alone, Zuckerman, Wall, Kenney-McGowan and Brett Mendez all had multi-hit games, led by three apiece from Wall and Kenney-McGowan.

Game number two began with the Ducks jumping out to an early lead once again as Paulich put Stevens on the board with a solo home run to right center that landed in near the soccer corner kick area on the opposite side of the DeBaun Athletic Complex.

One inning later, a Ben Tobio double put runners on second and third with one out for Mendez, who delivered once again with an RBI single up the middle to bring home two. Mendez was subsequently brought home on an RBI single to center by Wall and a Paulich sacrifice fly made it 5-0 through two.

Stevens tacked on another run in the fourth thanks to an RBI single through the left side by Paulich and three more in the fifth after a bases loaded walk to Mendez, an RBI single from Zuckerman and a Wall sacrifice fly.
Holding a 9-0 lead on the mound did not prove problematic for Shea as he got through 5.0 innings to pick up his first career win.

The Ducks followed a three-run fifth with a three-run sixth as Chris Davis ripped an RBI single to the shortstop and Mendez provided his fourth and fifth RBIs of the game with an RBI single up the middle, making it 12-0.

The Aggies scored their first run of the day in the top of the seventh but could not add more as Zuckerman nailed a runner trying to score from second on a single to right at the plate.

Stevens responded with a run of their own in the bottom half as Zickert raced home on an RBI single through the right side by Albrecht.

Eli Zuckerman found himself in some trouble in the eighth, but induced a flyout, a fielder's choice and a groundout to limited the damage to one run as DelVal had the bases juiced with nobody out.

Just like they had been doing all weekend, the Ducks provided an answer with Jake Prince producing his first career RBI with a groundout. One batter later, another career first occurred as Jack Irby went deep to center for a three-run homer to make the score 17-2, where it would stay the rest of the way.

Mendez, who finished game two 2 for 2 with a walk and a run scored, brought home five RBIs himself in game two while Irby, Paulich and Wall combined to drive in eight runs.

The Ducks were also solid defensively as they did not commit an error in the doubleheader while DelVal committed four.

Stevens went 19-35 with runners in scoring position and 14 for 17 with runners on third with less than two outs in the doubleheader. The Aggies, meanwhile, were held to 2 for 19 and 1 for 3 in the same scenarios.

"This upcoming weekend will be a good test for us. Arcadia is a well-coached and talented ball club," Aldins said. "We will need to have a focused week of team trainings leading up to what is shaping up to be a great weekend of baseball."

The series versus the Knights starts on Saturday in Ambler, Penn. with a doubleheader starting at noon. Live stats and video will be available on StevensDucks.com.

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