NASHUA, NH. – With Peter Maltzan breaking the career hits record the Emerson Baseball Team posted a banner day Friday as they stormed to Nashua to take two wins from Rivier and keep their GNAC playoff pursuit alive. The Lions won 17-4 and 7-3 on the day with Nick Kelly and Zak Levine both taking wins on the day to move to 2-5 and 2-3 respectively on the season while the Lions bolster to 10-25 on the year and 4-10 in conference play.

Game one sent Nick Kelly to the mound for EC in his eighth start of the season where after pitching a perfect first inning saw his teammates come out swinging at the bell as they took it to the Raiders pitching in the first inning as they exploded for nine runs off of four hits and three errors. James Sullivan put up a highlight in the inning as well with a three RBI triple as he crushed a bases loaded 1-2 pitch to deep left center to give EC a 9-0 cushion after one.

The Raiders chipped away in the second with three runs of their own and another one in the third before Emerson answered with another two runs in the bottom of the third with a Geoff Lopes sac fly and Ryan Garber putting in a heads up play on the base paths scoring on a wild pitch to make it 11-4 after three.

While that was all the Raiders had in the tank in the game the Lions weren't done tearing the roof off just yet though as they put on a clinic in the sixth inning with six runs off six hits with two more RBIs for James Sullivan as well as ribbys for Conor McDonough, Ryan Garber, Malcom Kelner and Kolby Woodfield to slam the door shut on Rivier in round one.

The night cap was a bit more eventful on and off the field as they teams were forced to shift fields mid game due to sprinkler issues. After settling in to a new field, Zak Levine took the ball for the Lions in the outing where the EC hurler was touched up a bit by the Raiders in the first inning for three runs off four hits.

The Lion offense had the D's back though as they surged to take the lead back in the bottom of the first putting up four runs off four hits with Geoff Lopes coming to shine in the game with a two RBI triple to left center which Kolby Woodfield followed up with a RBI double down the left field line before Conor McDonough's RBI single to left center made it 4-3 EC.

The pitching battle continued through the next few innings before the Lions couldn't keep quiet anymore putting up three runs in the fifth inning as Peter Maltzan started it with a single to center that would etch his name in EC history books as the career hit leader over Peter Karl's 149 with the same hit tying him for the single-season record of 47 as well.

In response his teammates rallied around him as Geoff Lopes wasn't done making noise with a two RBI home run with a shot to center field that the Raiders couldn't stop Lopes from touching them all on. Not to be outdone, Kolby Woodfield dug in as well to absolutely demolish a ball to left field in the final run of the game which fell 7-3 in Emerson's favor.

The Lions will travel up to Norwich this Sunday to close out the regular 2012 season with playoff implications on the line in the doubleheader.