The Chestnut Hill College Baseball team's offense exploded for 24 runs Friday afternoon as they swept a doubleheader for the first time this season, defeating host Florida Memorial University, 14-5 and 10-8 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The two wins improve the Griffins' record to 4-8 overall.   Florida Memorial falls to 10-8.

In the opener, Sam Barletta and Zach Ahmed drove in three runs apiece on two hits each and Nate O'Donnell went 3-3 with a walk to give pitcher Andrew Dietz his first win of the season.  Dietz pitched five innings, allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out four.

Chestnut Hill struck for seven runs in their first three at-bats with the big blows coming in the second and third innings.  Barletta belted a bases-clearing triple in the second following a bases loaded walk to Ahmed.  Ahmed added two more RBI in the third with a two-out two run single making the score 7-0.

In the fourth, Dietz helped his own cause with an RBI double and Aiden Nesemeier added a one-out single to boost the Griffins lead to 9-1.  The Griffins added four more runs in the top half of the fifth inning with John Contoudis delivering the big blow, a one-out two run triple as the Griffins led 13-2.  R.J. Huth's RBI single in the sixth rounded out the Griffins' scoring.

The Lions plated three runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 14-5 and Trevor Hurst retired FMU in order in the seventh to end the game.

In game two, Barletta again drove in three runs with a three-hit effort and Huth hit a solo home run in the seventh as the Griffins rallied from an 8-6 deficit to defeat the Lions 10-8.
Huth finished the game with three RBI while Contoudis drove in two.  Connor Evans had three hits along with Barletta.  Dan Rockenbach earned the win in relief for the Griffins while Jake Schweiker recorded his first save of the season, getting FMU's Young, the potential winning run, to hit a ground ball to the first baseman who tossed it over to Schweiker covering the bag for the final out.

It was the Lions who jumped out to a 6-1 lead after four innings as Griffins starter Pat Woltemate struggled through the first four innings pitched. In the top of the fifth Barletta had an RBI double followed by an RBI single from Contoudis to cut the deficit to 6-3.  Huth later plated Contoudis with a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-4.

Chestnut Hill tied the score in the top half of the sixth with a little help from the Lions as Greg Sylvester scored on an infield error and Barletta added another run with a single to score O'Donnell.

The Lions retook the lead in the bottom half of the sixth with two runs, leaving it up to to the Griffins to produce in their final at-bat.  Huth led off the inning with a solo home run to close the gap to 8-7.  Justin Geiger doubled and later scored the tying run of O'Donnell's single.  The Barletta/Contoudis combo then struck again, with each of them delivering and RBI hit (Barletta a single and Contoudis a double to give the Griffins a 10-8 lead.

Ian Labrador came in to try and close out the game, getting the first two outs before hitting a batter and walking another to bring up the potential winning run.  Schweiker entered the game and only needed to face one batter to end the game as the Griffins completed the doubleheader sweep.

The Chestnut Hill baseball team returns to action on Saturday, March 12, 2022 for their final game of their nine-game Florida Spring trip, again taking on Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens.  First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.