FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart University baseball team heads to Rider for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) series beginning Thursday at 3 p.m.
 
With the Easter holiday, instead of the series beginning on a Friday, games have been shifted up a day. The series will begin on Thursday at 3 p.m. with game two slated for Friday at 1 p.m. and game three for Saturday at noon.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Pioneers secured the series win against Canisius last weekend taking game one and three. SHU fell to the Golden Griffins in game two of the doubleheader Friday but came back to win game three in dominating fashion on Saturday.
 
In midweek competition the Pioneers defeated the University of Massachusetts 16-7 on Tuesday. After being down four runs, SHU added seven runs in the sixth to take an untouched lead.
 
Alex Ungar led the Pioneers this week with six hits, five RBIs and two home runs. He also leads the Pioneers in batting average at .331. On Tuesday, the senior secured his 100^th hit as a Pioneer
 
On the mound, all three Pioneer weekend starters had impressive showings allowing just two earned runs and six hits over 19 innings. Trombley threw a career high of eight innings against the Golden Griffins Friday allowing just three hits, no runs and struck out three batters. In game two on Friday, Elijah Foster secured a season high of nine strikeouts in six innings of work. Ryan Parker threw five innings on Sunday allowing just two hits, no runs and two strikeouts.
 
SCOUTING RIDER
The Broncs are currently ranked third in the MAAC with a 12-5 record in conference play. They are coming off a conference series win against Manhattan where they swept the double header on Sunday. Rider's only conference series loss was to Quinnipiac back in March where they dropped the first two games and took game three in mercy-rule fashion, 19-9.
 
Unlike SHU, who had their midweek on Tuesday, the Broncs face the challenge of hosting Princeton today at 3 p.m. and then hop right into a conference series tomorrow at 3 p.m.
 
Joe Tiroly leads the Broncs offense batting .385 with eight doubles, two triples and leads the conference in home runs with 14. The sophomore infielder has tallied 46 RBIs with a slugging percentage of .881. The Yardley, Pa., native was named MAAC Player of the Week coming off an impressive week going 7-for-10 at the plate and tallied three home runs and nine RBIs. Tiroly is tied at fourth for home runs in Division I baseball.
 
Rider's Gavin Hawkes leads the MAAC in ERA with 1.30 striking out 27 batters over 34.2 innings pitched with two wins, zero losses and two saves.
 
Brian Young has also stood out on the mound for the Broncs with an ERA of 2.59 over 48.2 innings pitched. The senior has struck out 43 batters posting a 6-0 record.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
SHU and Rider faced each other in a weekend series back in 2016 in New Jersey where Rider took the first two games and the Pios won the third, 7-4.
 
UP NEXT
The Pioneers will host Bryant at Veterans Park on Wednesday, April 23, at 3 p.m.