The Sacred Heart University baseball team had quite the impressive weekend against Monmouth University as the Pioneers took three out of four in the weekend series.

Senior Paul Schmidt set a new school record on Sunday by going a perfect 5-5 at the plate, hitting three homers, and setting the single game record for RBIs by driving in 10.

Much of the offensive help can be credited to a lineup of veterans who drove in a total of 48 runs in four games.

Along with Schmidt, junior Jeff Heppner was named the Akadema/Northeast Conference Player of the Week.

Heppner hit .500 (9-18) for the week, including two doubles, two homers, and eight runs batted in within five games.

He leads the team with ten homers to go along with his Northeast Conference best 47 RBIs. Heppner also is four RBIs away from tying the single season record set by Bill Packer in 1982 with 51.

"This weekend was a huge series for us," said sophomore Matt Fitton, "Being able to take 3 of 4 from Monmouth at their field was a huge confident booster."

The first game of the weekend series between Sacred Heart and Monmouth was a hard fought battle in which the Pioneers came out on top by a score of 19-11.

Senior Frank Bainer had four hits and five RBIs along with junior Mike Drowne who also drove in five runs on three hits to give the Pioneers the edge.

For much of the game, it was a back and forth matchup where both teams answered each other after establishing a lead within the first six innings.

The seventh inning was when the Pioneer offense clicked and broke the game wide open.

Heppner hit his ninth homer of the year - a two-run shot after a walk by senior Tyler Santos which gave the Pioneers a 10-8 lead.

Schmidt singled with two outs and went to second on a wild pitch, which put him in scoring position. Bainer drove him in with a single, making the score 11-8.

Freshman Hunter Phillips followed Schmidt with a single and both he and Bainer scored on another single by Drowne to increase the Pioneer lead to 13-8.

Junior Chris Zaccherio came on in relief of starter Chris Barthel and locked down the win for the Pioneers, improving his record to 2-3 on the season.

The first game of a double-header on Saturday was once again a hard fought game but Monmouth came out victorious with a 10-4 score.

Monmouth used a six-run second inning to take command of the game and much of the Pioneer comeback effort was shot down when Monmouth put up four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to seal the game for the Hawks.

In game three, junior Jared Balbach earned his sixth win of the season on the mound for the Pioneers with a little help from Heppner as he had three hits and three RBIs to secure the score at 10-3.

"Everything was working for me on Saturday," said Balbach. "When you get a big lead early in the game it makes it a lot easier to pitch. You can just attack the hitters and let them try and beat you."

The Pioneers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in just four innings which gave Balbach a comfortable lead to work with.

It was more than enough for Balbach as he pitched seven strong innings, allowing three runs on four hits. He struck out six and only walked one batter.

Game four against Monmouth was a record-setting game for Schmidt as he was perfect at the plate, going 5-5 and driving in a record 10 RBIs to give the Pioneers a 15-6 win.

"Having three homeruns and ten RBI's in one game is such an accomplishment because it rarely ever happens," said Schmidt. "The fact that I broke the record is an amazing feeling because it feels like four years of hard work has finally started to pay off."

The Pioneers loaded the bases in the first inning with singles from fellow seniors Phil Tantillo and Jeff Hanson.

Heppner reached base on a catcher's interference call and freshman Mike Olszyk walked to force in a run.

Schmidt then came up to the plate and blasted his first homer of the game which also happened to be a grand slam, setting his RBI mark at four.

"Schmidt had an unreal game on Sunday," said Fitton. "That is the most impressive performance I've seen. He's worked hard and yesterday he showed what he had and came through big."

The five-run lead that was established in the first inning gave the Pioneers the lead for good as Monmouth could not seem to keep the Pioneers from scoring.

In the fifth inning, both Heppner and Schmidt hit a pair of two-run homers to extend the Pioneer lead to 12-4. Schmidt completed his homerun hat-trick in the seventh inning with yet another two-run blast over the center field wall.

"Every at bat, I was given the opportunity to help my team win," said Schmidt. "My teammates were able to get on base, which was the reason why I was able to break the record.  So I can only thank my teammates for helping me achieve this record."

Junior Corey Corcoran pitched the first seven innings of the series finale to earn the win which evened his record at 1-1 this season.

The Pioneers have another four game weekend series against Quinnipiac University in Hamden.