Several schools were in action on the diamond (not the shamrock) this St. Patrick’s Day. And Fordham, St. John’s, and Old Westbury were definitely feeling the luck of the Irish, even if Old Westbury was the only one wearing green.
Division I
Fordham sweeps Sacred Heart in a doubleheader: 1-0 & 2-1
Fordham eked out a 1-0 victory in a pitching duel against Sacred Heart, thanks to the spectacular performance by starting pitcher Jimmy Murphy.
Murphy was dominant on the mound today, throwing eight innings of shutout two-hit ball and earning his first win of the season. He was perfect through the first 2 1/3 innings and struck out fourteen batters while walking just two. It was clear from the very start that he had his best stuff today, striking out two of the first three batters he faced. Murphy, a team captain made sure he put the Rams in the best position for them to win.
On the other side the Rams were getting their hits, but Sacred Heart was doing an excellent job preventing them from scoring. Fordham’s only run came in the fifth when Justin Bardwell scored from third on a passed ball. Bardwell was went two for five in game one, including a double that helped put him in the position to score.
Other Rams with multi-hit days included Reiss Knehr, Matthew Kozuch, and Ryan Mahoney. Alvin Melendez earned his first save of the season by closing out the ninth inning.
Game two packed a whole lot of drama into seven innings. It was another low scoring affair, tied at one in the bottom of the seventh a walk-off bases-loaded walk to Bardwell won it for the Rams.
Fordham was quick to get on the board, Luke Stampfl tripled in the game’s third at bat, and was brought home with an RBI single by Kozuch. No more runs were scored until the final inning when an RBI triple by Sacred Heart tied the game.
Fordham’s batters remained patient in the final half inning, Jason Lundy walked, so did Brian Goulard, then with two outs, Jake Baker worked the count full and took the fourth ball to load the bases for Bardwell. The Rams could only muster four hits, but were still able to come through when it mattered most.
After going two for four at second base in game one, Knehr pitched the full seven inning game two earning his second win of the season. He struck allowed six hits and one run while striking out eleven and not walking anyone.
Fordham hopes that their pitching staff can keep this up for game three of their series with Sacred Heart tomorrow at 1 P.M.
St. John’s survives a scare vs. Iona: 4-3
A ninth inning wild pitch ended up making the difference in the game for the Red Storm. Jesse Berardi came around giving St. John’s what turned out to be a very important insurance run, as it took a critical double play to hold Iona to a two-run bottom of the ninth, which allowed St. John’s to hang on for the win.
St. John’s first got on the board in the fifth when Berardi tied the game at one with a single up the middle.Anthony Brocato followed him with an RBI ground out, which allowed them to take the lead. Berardi went four for five on the day with two RBIs, as he would drive in another run on another single in the seventh.Apart from Berardi the only other Johnnie with multiple hits was Troy Dixon, who went three for five.
Starter Sean Mooney was fantastic through eight innings, giving up just one run on three hits and striking out six. Joe LaSorsa earned the save, he entered with runners on second a third and a two run lead. An error allowed one run to come in, but the next batter grounded it to short where Berardi was able to start the inning-ending game-saving double play.
St. John’s will face off with UMass-Lowell tomorrow at 3 as they continue their weekend in Virginia.
Stony Brook falls to UC Santa Barbara: 12-4
Tough loss for the Seawolves who found themselves way behind for nearly the entire game. Santa Barbara jumped on Stony Brook for seven runs in the bottom of the first, and despite their best efforts they couldn’t complete a comeback.
The Seawolves did refuse to go down without a fight, scoring four runs to make it a close game for a while. Nick Grande drove in Stony Brook’s first run on a single to left field in the third inning. Their next runs came in the sixth when Casey Baker lead the inning off with a solo home run to right, and Sean Buckhout drove in two more runners with a double to right center later in the inning. However, Santa Barbara responded with five more runs in the bottom of the eighth to stretch their lead to 12-4.
Baker had the biggest day for the Seawolves, going three for four at the plate, Grande went two for four, and Michael Wilson and Toby Handley both went two for five.
Stony Brook will continue this series with UC Santa Barbara tomorrow at 5 P.M.
Division II
Adelphi drops game versus Lynn University: 15-2
Difficult game for Adelphi, with this loss their record slides to 8-5. The game was knotted at zero for the first 3 1/2 innings, but Lynn began to break through in the fourth and eventually put up 8 runs in the seventh inning.
Six of Adelphi’s nine hits came from left fielder Brandon Morse and right fielder Lawrence Cicileo, who went three for four and three for three respectively. Cicileo later scored on Robert Vani‘s two-run two-out pinch-hit home run in the eighth.
Steven Kuhn got the start today. He threw three shut-out innings for Adelphi, while striking out three and giving up three hits.
Adelphi will play Lynn again at 2 P.M. tomorrow.
Division III
Old Westbury’s bats carry them to another win: 11-6
In their last seven games the Old Westbury Panthers are 5-2, including this morning’s win against Gallaudet University. Westbury jumped out to an early lead and built on it, doing most of their scoring in the game’s first five innings.
It was kicked off with in the top of the first by left fielder Kevin Lao, who’s RBI double to left center scored shortstop Tommy Ziegen. Then singles from Dean Sheridan and Paul Rapoli each knocked in a run in the third inning.
Up 3-0 after three innings the Panthers didn’t let up, adding five more runs in the top of the fourth. Singles from Rapoli, Sheridan, and Jesse Russo added a run each, while double from Ziegen drove in two more. A triple from Russo in the next inning scored another run, then he was driven in on a sacrifice fly from Jesse Matos. Their eleventh run came on sacrifice fly from Ziegen in the seventh.
Westbury tallied 20 hits, eight came from Russo and Rapoli, who had four hits each. Both drove in two runs, and Russo also scored three times. Matos, Ziegen, Lao, Sheridan, and Nick Cordeo all had multi-hit days of their own as well.
Starter Jason Espinal earned his second win of the year with five innings of three-hit ball, he gave up just a single unearned run. Steven Tellerias notched his first save of the year with three innings of one-run ball to close out the game.
Tomorrow morning the Panthers will face off with John’s Hopkins for their final game of the Gene Cusic Colligate Classic. Westbury will look to end their weekend in Fort Myers with a 5-1 record.
NJCAA Division III
Nassau Community College splits doubleheader: 7-0 & 3-7
No box score available.
