All eyes were on Elias Martinez today at Angelo Lorenzo Memorial Field.
The big RHP impressed all the scouts on hand with a dynamite fastball and a big curveball that produced seven strikeouts while allowing only three hits over 8.1 IP. It was what happened after he left, though, that resulted in a 6-2 loss at the hands of Sacred Heart University.
“I thought he commanded the zone well,” said pitching coach Al Sontag. “He had all the stuff working–he got ahead of batters. He went into the ninth inning with under 90 pitches, we wanted to give him a chance to try and get a ‘W’, but once he got over 100 pitches I thought it was time to get him out. He made one bad pitch all day.”
The Bears took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a solo shot to left field by freshman Zach Kleinwaks.
Sacred Heart took the lead back in the top of the fourth on a two-run shot by Keith Klebart.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth when another freshman, Brendan Dowd, launched a long home run over the center field fence.
“It felt great,” said Dowd. “He threw me a fastball on a 3-2 count, just tried to put it in play and it carried over the center field wall,” he added.
Martinez really settled into a groove and he fired scoreless innings in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings before walking the leadoff batter in the ninth inning. He struck out the next batter before giving way to reliever Chris Miller.
Miller allowed a single, a two-run triple and two-run home run in succession which gave Sacred Heart a 6-2 lead, which ultimately was the difference in the game.
The Bears offense struggled for much of the day. They faced a soft-tossing southpaw in James Taubl. After he issued walks to the first two batters of the games, he really settled down. He consistently expanded the strike zone and mixed in a flurry of change ups and curveballs. He struck out 11 over 6.0 IP, before giving way to another southpaw in John Sostarich. He fired the final three innings, allowing no runs and earning the victory.
With the loss, the Bears drop to 1-6 on the young season. They will be back in action on March 7 at Stony Brook.
