The Assumption University baseball team opened Northeast 10 conference play on Saturday afternoon in Manchester with a doubleheader vs the Hawks of Saint Anselm. The Hounds took both games from the Hawks, with the bats providing a spark in game one, followed by a pitching masterpiece in game two. 

Game One: 

 Assumption got the scoring started in the third inning when Kevin Cox (North Kingston, R.I.) hit an RBI single to right field scoring Nick Gaglioti (West Hartford, Conn) and Conor Wironen (Leominster, Mass.) drew a walk with the bases loaded to bring home Owen Podolec (Berwick, Maine) and following a pitching change, Jared Berardino (Rowley, Mass.) drew another bases loaded walk to score Cox and give the visitors a three run third inning. Saint A's responded in the bottom half with a two run homer but Assumption added two more thanks to a 2 out 2 RBI double from Emilio Acosta (Cromwell, Conn). 

 Assumption grew their lead to 7-2 thanks to a two run homer from Podolec and two more in the eight on a 2 RBI double from Berardino. Saint A's would get four runs in the eighth on a grand slam from Brady Doran but Assumption would add three in the ninth on RBIs from Cox who finished the day going 3-6  and Acosta who went 2-4 on the day with 4 RBIs and Alexander Meesig (Nashua, N.H.) would lock down the save over 1.1 innings of work while striking out two Hawks. 

Patrick Harrington (Bedford, N.H.) started the game for the Hounds and picked up the win going seven innings and striking out five while improving his record to 3-1. Dylan Bedder started for Saint A's and took the loss. 

Game Two: 

The story of game two was all about junior Jack Choate (North Grafton, Mass.). The southpaw went threw a complete game shutout in the backend of the double header and struck out 19 Hawks batters, tying a program record for most strikeouts in a game. The defense had an easy day behind him as Choate recorded all but two outs himself, facing 26 batters on the day and allowed two hits and two walks.

The offense got things started right away when Emilio Acosta hit an RBI double to right scoring Owen Podolec and Jared Berardino followed with an RBI single up the middle to score Acosta to give Choate a lead to work with. After a one out single in the home half of the first, Choate struck out nine in a row and the Hounds added two more runs in the third from a Kevin Cox RBI single and Berardino adding another RBI to give the visitors a 4-0 advantage. Choate worked around a two out walk in the fourth and then struck out six in a row and stranded a runner at third in the sixth to save the shutout, and then struck out the final two batters he faced in the seventh to cap off and amazing performance. 

Assumption (8-7, 2-0 NE10) finishes off the series on Sunday, March 27 with a doubleheader vs Saint Anselm. First pitch is set for 12:00pm.