GLENSIDE, Pa. (March 20, 2021) – After getting off to the best start in program history since at least 1960, the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball program dropped its first two games of the season Saturday, falling in a pair games 10-0 against Arcadia University on the road.

The Ducks were out-hit 22-6 in the doubleheader and got some tough luck in the field as they fell to 6-2 on the season.

"Tough day for the Ducks today," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "Arcadia outplayed us, there is no two ways around it. But we have a talented and hard-working group of student-athletes. Tomorrow is another day and we are excited to get back to Dobbelaar. That's the great thing about baseball, you often times have a chance to get back on the field the very next day."

Offensively, Stevens was led by Brett Mendez and Nate Zuckerman who both had one hit in each contest.

The Knights, meanwhile, were led offensively by Ryan Smolen who finished the day 6 for 8 with three RBIs while Zachary Sekelick produced five RBIs on the day. On the hill, meanwhile, Arcadia used three pitchers who combined to toss 16 shutout innings while allowing six hits and fanning 12.

In game number two, starting pitcher Roy Iversen had a solid start on the mound as he allowed four runs on 10 hits over 7.0 innings of work.

"Roy really hung in there in game two and kept us in it," Aldins said. "He got into a groove in the later innings and gave us another solid start."

The first game of the day started well for Leo Bristow for the Ducks as he breezed through the start of the game with six strikeouts while allowing just two hits through the first three frames.

In the fourth, the Knights got on the board first with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly, but Bristow limited the damage by helping his own cause with a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning.

After the first two batters of the inning in the fifth were retired, an error on a hard ground ball allowed the inning to continue and Arcadia took advantage.

The Knights followed the error with back-to-back singles followed by back-to-back walks to make the score 5-0 before Seklick broke things open with a bases-clearing double down the left field line to push the score to 8-0.

Arcadia added two more in the sixth to push the edge to 10 and earn the double-digit victory.

The second game of the doubleheader was much closer than the final score indicated with the Knights scoring six of their 10 runs in their final at bat.

In the bottom half of the second, Arcadia took the lead on a wild pitch and added two more on a pair of RBI singles, but Iversen induced a flyout to end the threat and limit the damage.

Two innings later, the Knights were back to the two-out hitting as they got a two-out RBI double to push the edge to four, but Michael Reyes made a spectacular throw from center field to throw the runner out trying to stretch the double into a triple.

Stevens looked poised to climb back into the contest in the top of the fifth as they loaded the bases with one out but hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

The Ducks were unable to get a runner past second base the rest of the way and Arcadia added six runs in the bottom of the eighth to make the contest more lopsided than it was the majority of the way.

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