AUBURNDALE, FL – The Saint Joseph's College baseball team improved to 4-0 with a pair of shutout victories over Ripon College (0-3) on Sunday afternoon. The Monks defeated the Red Hawks by a 3-0 score in the opener and prevailed, 1-0, in the nightcap.

Saint Joseph's, ranked 12th nationally in the latest D3baseball.com Poll, continued to display dominant pitching after yielding just one run in a doubleheader sweep over Rhode Island College yesterday. Senior Chad Rafferty (Keene, N.H.), a D3baseball.com Preseason First Team All-America selection, began his final college season by tossing a complete-game shutout with five hits allowed and eight strikeouts in the 3-0 opening victory.

Junior righthander Nick Whittaker (Yarmouth, Maine) followed suit in the nightcap, scattering five hits and a walk with six K's over five strong frames before giving way to freshman reliever Corey McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.), who fanned four of the six batters he faced in two clean innings to pick up the save.

In the first game of the extremely windy day, junior catcher Willie Brown (Fayette, Maine) broke a scoreless tie when he drove in senior Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.), who singled to reach, with a two-out single in the top of the fourth. The Monks doubled their cushion with an Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.) sacrifice fly in the sixth and added an insurance run when sophomore Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) lofted a sac fly to center, scoring junior center fielder Louie Vigars (Stratham, N.H.), in the top of the seventh.

A key play in the victory occurred with one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth. Ripon sophomore Mitchell Busch (Appleton, Wis.) drove a grounder up the middle but the ball was snagged by a diving David Nieves (York, Maine), who flipped to Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine) at second for the force out. Rafferty managed to escape unscathed by striking out the following batter.

Pratt went 2-3 with a run scored and a stolen base in the first win over Ripon, which stranded eight runners and advanced only one baserunner past second in the opener.

With the complete-game victory, Rafferty improves to 22-1 during his career and is just one triumph away from tying Richard Flaherty '86 on the Monks' all-time wins list. 

In the closing contest, sophomore catcher Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) drove in the game's lone run when he plated senior Sam Butts (Saco, Maine), who earlier reached on a fielder's choice, with a two-out single in the fifth inning.

Whittaker, who threw 79 pitches including 50 for strikes, helped his cause by picking off a pair of runners in the 1-0 triumph. With runners on first and second and nobody out in the top of the fourth, the crafty junior caught senior Taylor Koth (Cedarburg, Wis.) snoozing with a wheel play pick at second and nailed senior Kyle Bosquez (Weyauwega, Wis.) at first for the final out in the fifth frame.

Offensively, Coyne was 2-3 with an RBI and Lorenc went 2-3 in the SJC triumph.

Saint Joseph's has never before opened the season with three shutouts in the opening four games and the SJC pitching staff has succeeded in not allowing a run in the last 25.1 innings. Interestingly, the Monks registered only four shutout victories during the entire 2012 season.

With the victories, Saint Joseph's improves to 2-2 in the history of the series with Ripon College, a team that has made 19 NCAA Tournament appearances, including two in the last three years. The last time these two teams faced off occurred during the 2006 spring trip when the Red Hawks took two from the Monks and handed former pitcher Charlie Furbush, now a reliever with the Seattle Mariners, his only loss that season in a 3-2 setback.

St. Joe's faces off against Wheaton College, the top-ranked team in the country, at 1:00 PM on Monday afternoon at Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida.

Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 350-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.