SPRINGFIELD, Mass. --  Graduate Derek Lefebvre (Groton, Mass.) rapped out four hits (including a two-run homer) and scored five runs, as Clark University swept a non-league baseball doubleheader from Springfield by scores of 8-5 in the opener and 8-7 in the nightcap in games played Sunday afternoon at Archie Allen Field.

All of the scoring in the lid-lifter came in the middle innings, as graduate Dylan Horn (Sterling, Conn.) gave the visiting Cougars (5-7) a 1-0 fourth inning lead with an RBI single that plated senior Chris Radovic (Fairfield, Conn.), who ignited a four-run fifth inning rally with a run-scoring triple.  After junior Andrea Casabianca (Yonkers, N.Y.) drove in Radovic with an RBI single, Horn laced an RBI double and later scored on sophomore Anthony Keefe's (Plymouth, Mass.) single to center to give Clark a 5-0 advantage midway through the contest.

The host Pride (1-5) answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the frame on senior Jack Simonetty's (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) RBI double that was followed by run-scoring singles off the bats of sophomores Joe Traversa (Pittsfield, Mass.) and Michael Barrett (Longmeadow, Mass.), who later came across on a wild pitch.  First-year Billy Sullivan (Hicksville, N.Y.) gave the visitors some insurance in the sixth with a two-run single before scoring on an error, and Traversa's RBI triple in the bottom half of the inning enabled Springfield to close back to within the final margin.

Lefebvre and first-year Cory Giannelli (Essex Junction, Vt.) collected two hits each as part of a 12-hit attack in the opener for Clark, as junior Kevin Irwin (Pakkret, Nonthaburi) evened his record at 1-1 on the spring by scattering four hits over four innings of work.  Sophomore Nate Bonini (Westfield, Mass.) worked a scoreless frame to pick up his first save of the season for the Cougars.

Traversa, senior Conor Santoianni (Stormville, N.Y.) and sophomore Cadin Maynard (Waterford, Conn.) each rapped out two hits in Springfield's nine-hit performance in the first contest, as senior John Daley (Huntington, Mass.) allowed five hits over the first 3 2/3 innings to suffer the setback on the mound for the Pride.

The two teams exchanged first inning runs in the nightcap before Sullivan's RBI single and a run-scoring triple off the bat of sophomore Connor Rulnick (Middlefield, Conn.) gave Clark a 3-1 third inning advantage.  Senior Noah Bleakley (Granby, Mass.) sliced Springfield's deficit in half in the fifth with an RBI double, but the Cougars extended their edge to 8-2 with a five-run sixth inning uprising that featured senior Steven Mooney's (Buffalo, N.Y.) two-run double and an RBI single from senior Aidan Cahill (Mansfield, Mass.) before being capped by Lefebvre's two-run blast.

That round-tripper proved key in the final two frames, as the Pride responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth on an error, a sacrifice fly by first-year Andrew McCarty (Meriden, Conn.) and junior Joe Penkala's (Warren, R.I.) two-run double.  Junior Jack Cooney's (Pittsfield, Mass.) RBI single got the hosts back within a run in the seventh, but the visitors left the tying and lead runners on base to end the threat and complete the sweep.

Rulnick amassed three of Clark's eight hits in the second game triumph, as first-year Maxwell Gitlin (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) allowed two hits and fanned six over four innings of work to improve to 2-1 on the season.  Keefe came on to record the final out to earn his first save for the Cougars, who rapped out eight hits in the nightcap.

Bleakley accounted for a third of Springfield's nine hits in the second outing, while Cooney and sophomore Noah Diamond (Glastonbury, Conn.) each added two hits for the hosts.  Sophomore Michael White (Granby, Mass.) allowed four hits over 2 2/3 frames in taking the setback on the hill for the Pride.

Clark hosts 10^th-ranked Babson in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Granger Field beginning at Noon, while Springfield entertains Emerson in a NEWMAC twinbill on Saturday at Archie Allen Field that also begins at Noon.

(Photo courtesy Brian Magoffin, Springfield Athletic Communications)