The weather did not do us any favors on Friday. Despite an air temperature of about 45 degrees, the games were played in a sustained 20-25 MPH winds which made the real temperature feel like 35 degrees. Some games were cancelled. Regardless, there was still plenty of excitement in the games that did occur. We covered Suffolk-Nassau, which you can read about here.
Here’s the rest of the action:
Division-I:
Stony Brook outlasted Sacred Heart, 12-9, in heavy sustained winds that certainly made it difficult on the pitchers. The victory extended their win streak to six, as they now have a record of 9-7. They led 5-0 after two innings thanks to an RBI single by Mike Wilson, a passed ball that he scored on, a bases loaded walk to Nick Grande, a fielder’s choice by Chris Hamilton and a bases loaded hit by pitch of Johnny Decker.
Sacred Heart answered right back with a seven-spot in the third inning off ace Greg Marino, but Stony Brook’s bats could not be stopped. They scored two in the third and fourth innings and three in the eighth. The go-ahead run scored in the eighth on an error. They actually got out-hit 15-9, but they took advantage of eight walks and two errors by Sacred Heart. Brandon Bonanno contributed 2.1 innings of relief and Sam Turcotte recorded the win with 1.2 shutout innings.
They will be back in action this afternoon at 2pm at Stony Brook.
Fordham defeated St. Bonaventure, 8-2, to extend their win streak to three. Matt Mikulski struck out a career-high 10 batters over 6.0 IP for his second win of the season.Brian Weissert struck out the side in the eighth and Mike Cowell closed it out in the eighth and ninth. That combination struck out 18 batters for the Rams in the Atlantic-10 conference opener. The Rams made the most of their opportunities, compiling their eight runs on seven hits, with only Alvin Melendez notching a multi-hit day. Jake MacKenzie (.372 AVG) filled up the stat sheet with one hit, 3 runs scored and two walks. They left only five runners on base in the game. They will play again today in the Bronx at 2pm. The Rams are now 13-9 on the season.
St. John’s and Hofstra were cancelled due to weather and they cancelled today as well. They will play a DH tomorrow in Queens beginning at noon.
Division-II:
NYIT defeated Molloy, 12-10, in the ECC Opener. The Bears got out to a quick 5-0 on a 2-R HR by E.J. Cumbo, a fielder’s choice and a 2-R HR by Kieran Dowd. They extended the lead to 6-0 on an RBI double by Ryan Kuskowski in the 2nd inning. They had opened a lead of 11-3 in the eighth inning when Ben McNeill’s RBI triple scored Joseph Pesce. At that point, the game was in hand with starting pitcher Chris Mott having thrown seven inning, yielding just three runs with eight strikeouts and zero walks.
Molloy would not go down without a fight. They scored two in the eighth off Dean Fazah on a triple by Jake Saltzman. They erupted for five in the ninth off Ryan Mueller on an RBI single by James Messina, a bases loaded walk by Robby Keane,a two-run single by Saltzman and a wild pitch that scored him. Ariel Taveras, the third pitcher of the inning, came on an struck out Jake McCarthy to end the game. These two teams will be back in action today at NYIT for a DH beginning at noon. Both offenses are firing, but Molloy has made a habit of waiting until the later innings to get going in the past couple games. They will need to get out to a quick start as they look to turn their season around from its current 3-11 record.
Queens lost, 5-3, to Mercy College. They got out to a quick 1-0 lead thanks to an RBI single by the red-hot Eric Roubal. It did not last long, though, as Mercy responded with two in the home half of the first and another in the third. Joe O’Rourke contributed an RBI double in the third to cut the deficit to 3-2 and Louis Antos hit an RBI double in the seventh to cut it to 4-3, but that was as close as they would get.
The two teams will be back in action today in Queens for a DH beginning at noon. The Knights are currently 9-7-1 and were ranked No. 2 in last week’s Axcess Baseball Div-II rankings.
Division-III:
Old Westbury and Yeshiva were postponed due to weather. Old Westbury will play the College of St. Vincent on Sunday.
