The Gannon University baseball team added three more wins to its ledger with a sweep of D’Youville College at McConnell Family Stadium over the weekend, improving to 8-3 on the season.

The Knights swept the Saints 2-0 and 9-4 in a doubleheader Thursday as coach DJ Cannon made his home debut and Gannon added an 8-0 shutout win Sunday.

The Knights were led Thursday in large part by pitcher Eric Sapp’s excellent performance in the opener, tossing a complete game while only allowing five hits.

The lefty walked only three and struck out six and only allowed runners to reach second base twice.

For Sapp, a graduate student, it was his second career shutout.

The offense contributed greatly to the win, as the Knight collected seven hits.

The Knights took a 1-0 lead after redshirt junior infielder Trey Zeroski started the third inning with a triple to right center.

After a ground ball to second, Zeroski took off for home plate, beating the throw from the first baseman after a play at first.

The score increased to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning after Ian Hess singled, advanced on a wild pitch and came home on redshirt junior infielder Ryan Kalbfus’ double to center field.

Kalbfus finished the day going 3-for-3 with a double, two singles and two stolen bases. His RBI double that drove home Hess was his 15th RBI.

In addition, sophomore infielder Miguel Vega went 2-for-3 with a double.

In the second game of the doubleheader, starting pitcher Jacob Visha turned in a performance to emulate, allowing seven hits over 5 1/3 innings.

Visha secured his first win of the season, walking just one and tying a career high in strikeouts with seven.

After Gannon took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, it extended the lead to 3-0 in the third on a pair of unearned runs when junior outfielder Kieran Gagnon drove in Brandan Rea and Kalbfus with a triple to right field.

After the Saints scored in the top of the third, the Knights blew things wide open in the bottom of the fifth with four runs. Gagnon opened the scoring in that frame by doubling, stealing third and coming home on a Hess sacrifice fly. This was followed by three more runs, one of which scored on Luke Callahan’s RBI double.

The Knight offense combined for eight hits in Game 2, with Gagnon going 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

Sunday’s win was fueled by a four-run first inning that gave the Knights the momentum they needed.

Miguel Vega kicked it off in the first with a solo home run that was followed by a two-run single by Jorge Mejia to make it 3-0; afterwards, with Mejia on third, Connor Rakow hit a sacrifice fly to send Mejia home.

A throwing error by the Saints’ catcher allowed Mejia to score in the third to make it a 5-0 game.

The next inning, Kalbfus hit an RBI single that brought Vega home to increase the lead to 6-0.

Finally, a two-run home run from redshirt junior outfielder Brandon Wetherholt made it 8-0 after five innings and put the exclamation mark on the series.

On the mound, another strong pitching performance contributed to the win.

Over nine innings, five pitchers combined to deliver a shutout, including freshman Carson Whiteman, who started and served up three scoreless innings before redshirt senior Deven Judy relieved and struck out five while only allowing two hits in three innings.

Judy improved to 2-0 with the win.

The Knights will travel to Wild Things Park in Washington, Pa., Friday to open Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference play against the California (Pa.) Vulcans. Friday’s doubleheader starts at 1 p.m. and the two teams will return to Erie for a 1 p.m. Saturday doubleheader at McConnell Family.

The Knights also are scheduled to take on the Lake Erie Storm at 3 p.m. Tuesday in a nonconference matchup at McConnell Family Stadium.

MICHAEL GUIDO

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