Emmitsburg, Md. (May 14, 2009)--Sacred Heart defeated Mount St. Mary's, 19-6, in the opening game of a four-game Northeast Conference series at E.T. Straw Family Stadium on campus on Thursday afternoon. Matt Staso (Ellicott City, Md./Mount St. Joseph) went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the loss for the Mountaineers.

With the loss, the Mount drops to 21-24 overall and into a tie for fourth place with Central Connecticut State in the NEC standings with a 13-10 record with three games left in the regular season. The top four teams in the conference qualify for the NEC Tournament. Sacred Heart (26-23-1, 15-8 NEC) clinched a spot in the NEC Tournament with the victory.

The Pioneers got things started quickly with a Jeff Hanson two-run homer in the top of the first inning. It was the first of six home runs by Sacred Heart in the game. With a stiff wind blowing out to left field, Tyler Santos added a pair of home runs while Mike Drowne, Phil Tantillo and Paul Schmidt also homered for Sacred Heart.

After Sacred Heart tacked on a single run in the second, Kyle Kane (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro) belted a solo home run to left center field to cut the deficit to 3-1 after two innings of play. Steve Tedesco posted an RBI single ahead of Drowne's two-run shot in the fourth for a 6-1 lead, but the Mount answered with two runs in the fifth on a Jacob Darr (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson) RBI infield hit and a Kane sacrifice fly.

The Pioneers, however, scored twice in the sixth, but the Mount's Josh Winter (Timonium, Md./Boys' Latin) hit a solo home run in the bottom of the frame to make the score 8-4. The Pioneers, however, scored eight times in the seventh to seal the victory. In the decisive inning, Schmidt and Tantillo connected for three-run blasts while Santos added a solo shot.

The Mount received back-to-back home runs from Shane Eyler (Taneytown, Md./Francis Scott Key) and Staso in the bottom of the seventh. Eyler's long ball was his team-leading 15th home run of the season and tied him with Wagner's Vin Avella and Monmouth's Paul Bottigliero for the home run lead in the Northeast Conference.

Eyler finished 2-for-5 while Staso and Winter each went 2-for-4 in the loss. Brady Feigl took the loss, striking out six while allowing 12 runs in six-plus innings.

Tedesco went 5-for-5 with three runs scored while Robert Griffith added a 4-for-6 day to pace Sacred Heart, which had 22 hits in the ballgame. Tantillo was 3-for-6 with five RBI in the contest. Chris Barthel allowed six runs in 6.2 innings to earn the victory while Matt Fitton tossed 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

The teams return to action tomorrow with a noon doubleheader at E.T. Straw Family Stadium.