February 25 Recap

by Mike Guido

The season has reached day two of weekend two and ball clubs are beginning to lay their foundations and discover their identities. Unfortunately, six out of nine teams took the loss in seven of the ten games played on Saturday. However, there were some bright spots and the season is young so progress is due.

Division I:

St. John’s remains unbeaten after six:

St. John’s is off to a scorching start to begin the 2017 campaign earning their sixth win in as many games. The most impressive thing about this club’s streak is the fashion in which they’re grabbing victories. After beating Kansas State earlier this weekend 9-2, they added a 15-3 win against UMBC to their resume on Saturday. A strong outing by Mike LoPresti was a key component to the victory while earning his second win. After giving up two runs on three hits in the first inning, he remained perfect through the fifth while striking out nine.  The majority of St. John’s run production came in the second inning totaling six runs on six hits while five of those runs came on dingers. A three-run homer by Robert Boselli III, an RBI double from Jesse Berardi and a two-run shot from Anthony Brocato represented the huge inning. Jamie Galazin had a monster day as well–putting up a three spot in the RBI column while going three for five on the day.
The Red Storm will aim for their seventh straight victory as they face off against UMBC again today at 2:00 PM.

Stony Brook rebounds after tough start:

The Seawolves season finally started to turn around yesterday after earning their first victory, 8-3, against Presbyterian. They were able to pull out an 11-inning win on Saturday after losing on a walk-off on Friday. A pair of triples by Casey Baker, his second of the game, and Andruw Gazzola cemented a five-run inning in the 11th to put the nail in the coffin. A proud day for Nick Grande today as well recording his first collegiate hit smacking a solo shot in the fifth to get Stony Brook their first run.

Sam Turcotte got his first collegiate start tossing 4.1 innings giving up only one run. Cam Stone got the W after pitching three innings with six strikeouts and only one run surrendered. The Seawolves look to take the series against Presbyterian at noon today.

Hofstra falls to 2-5 after loss to Grambling State:

A tough 8-7 loss for Hofstra after coming down to the wire and losing it in the ninth inning yesterday against Grambling State–especially when the winning run scores on a strikeout. However, the Pride should definitely have some after scoring seven runs on 12 hits.

Mike Riesner had a nice day going three-for-four and scoring each time he reached while Steven Foster recorded two hits with two RBI’s. Vinnie Costello and Sean Rausch also put two hits on the board along with Nick Bottari and Tom Archer reaching and scoring in the game as well.

The defense was definitely struggling behind Teddy Cillis as he gave up four runs with three of them unearned. Cillis also recorded six walks in four innings this time out. John Ryan will take the loss in the scorebook after only giving up an unearned run in 2.2 innings pitched. Hofstra has a bit of a break before their next outing next Saturday at Charleston Southern.

NYIT takes tough loss after dominant performance from Martinez:

New York Tech’s rough start continues after taking a tough loss to Sacred Heart yesterday. Heading into the ninth with a tie score, Sacred Heart scored four runs to seal the 6-2 win for the pioneers.

Though NYIT took the loss, you couldn’t ask more out of Elias Martinez. He commanded the game into the ninth inning pitching 8.1 innings, while allowing three runs on three hits with eight strikeouts. Martinez exited the game after allowing a leadoff walk to Kevin Czapelski and striking out Keith Klebart. Christopher Miller was brought in leading to four run crossing the plate ultimately handing Tech the loss.

It was a tough offensive day for the Bears where no one in their starting lineup recorded more than one hit on the day. The only two runs scored in the game were scored on two solo home runs by Brendan Dowd and Zach Kleinwaks where the rest of the team struggled producing runs.

NYIT also needed to complete the game that was stopped yesterday due to darkness where they also took a loss 6-0.

The Bears’ next game will be on March 7 at Stony Brook.

Fordham takes the loss despite Stampfl’s big day:

Fordham drops to 1-4 on the year after losing yesterday to Long Beach State 8-4. However, the Rams had something to smile about anyway. The team collected 14 hits on the day as well as a five for five performance from Luke Stampfl which included the cycle.

The game had gone back and forth constantly where Fordham had taken the lead in the first after Brian Goulard double and a Stampfl triple, but Long Beach State came right back with two of their own early. The lead changed consistently over the first five innings, but after the fifth, Fordham was unable to regain the lead. Stampfl had also doubled in the third, homered in the fifth, and a pair of singles in the seventh and ninth innings. Goulard also recorded three hits and two runs scored along with Jason Lundy boasting three hits as well.

Reiss Knehr took the loss in today’s outing, evening his record to 1-1 on the year. He gave up six runs on four hits in 5.2 innings. The Bears saw a short, but strong outing from Anthony DiMeglio only allowing a hit in 1.1 innings.

The Rams will look to bounce back tomorrow at 4:00 PM in the final game of the series.

Division II:

LIU Post dominate in double-header:

After dropping two since February 18th, the Pioneers have won four straight to improve to 5-3 on the season. Yesterday, they played a double-header against Merrimack College and Southern Connecticut State winning both and piling on to their win streak.

LIU Post dominated the first game by blowing out Merrimack 21-12 on a total of 20 hits. Every player in Post’s starting lineup crossed the plate at least once including Anthony Vaglica–who did it an astounding five times. Post’s leadoff hitter, Rob Andreoli, had a huge day while putting up seven RBI on two hits and three runs scored. Vaglica went four-for-five with three RBI’s to go along with the five runs scored as mentioned before. Michael Greene also found his way to the plate four times. Dave Brehm had four RBI’s on three hits and Sal Geraci had three as well.

Mike Stiles got the start, allowing four runs on six hits in three innings while Mike Lazos got the win holding down the fort while only giving up two hits in 3.1 innings.

Game two against Southern Connecticut State was bit tighter and more low-scoring as the Pioneers pulled out a 3-2 victory. After SCSU took an early 1-0 lead in the second, Post came back with one of their own in the third and again in the fourth. After Joe Piscitelli scored ultimately the winning run on a wild pitch in the eighth, SCSU was only able to score one more in the bottom half sealing the victory for the Pioneers. Andreoli had another big game going three-for-five with RBI and a run scored as well as Vaglica who went 3-for-4 on the day.
Nick Schoen put together a strong outing for Post going 5.1 innings, while only giving up one run on five hits and getting the win. Dan Jagiello was brought in in the eighth to lock it down for the Pioneers and he did just that by recording a two inning save, his second on the season.

They will try and continue their win streak against Franklin Pierce today at 9:00 AM.

Queens College takes the loss despite early lead:

Queens College took the loss, 4-3, yesterday in a close game against No. 6 Southern New Hampshire. The Knights took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning after consecutive singles by Joe Pidoto and Tom Parish. Joe Morris drew a bases loaded walk allowing the first run to score and Billy Riches drove in the following run with an RBI single. The Penmen then took the lead back in the fifth and never gave it back. Pidoto narrowed the lead to one in the eighth with a double, but that was all they could muster up.

Queens will look to pick themselves up today when they play Stonehill at 9:00 AM.

Molloy’s struggles continue dropping both in double-header:

Molloy has yet to reach the upper end of the medal stand dropping their first six to start the 2017 season. They lost the first game against Felician 12-7 and got blown out in the second, 17-0, to Southern Connecticut State.

Despite recording seven runs on 12 hits, the team could not muster up the win on Saturday. Kevin Podell had a nice game going 3-for-5 with three RBI’s to go along with a run scored. Catcher, Jack McCarty also contributed with two hits and two runs scored. Big hitters Angelo Navetta and Anthony Alberghina went 0-for-9 combined in the game.

Dominic Danetti threw six innings while allowing five runs on four hits while putting five men on base. Anthony Vano recorded the loss after giving up three runs on two hits without recording an out.

In the second game of this double-header, Molloy took an enormous loss to Southern Connecticut State 17-0. The team was only able to manage four hits while being shutout.

Anthony Catinella took the loss for the Lions while allowing six runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings while striking out four.

Molloy will end the weekend trip tomorrow against Concordia.

Division III:

Old Westbury drops to 1-2 after loss to Baruch:

Old Westbury took a 2-1 loss to Baruch despite a stellar performance on the mound from Adam Heidenfelder. He allowed only two runs on two hits in six innings while holding a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Baruch was able to score in the second on two throwing errors costing them a run. Old Westbury tied the game in the fourth with a Tommy Ziegen single and Dean Sheridan RBI base hit. That would end up being the only run scored by the Panthers.

Old Westbury returns to the diamond next Saturday when they take on Western New England.

Though it wasn’t a great day for Long Island baseball yesterday, the season is still young and a lot of potential is still untapped.