(By Joseph Langan and Vin Messana)
As we enter the second weekend of college baseball for Division-I schools, some of Long Island’s Division-II & III teams kicked off their season today. Six games were scheduled on Friday as Stony Brook, Fordham and Old Westbury, all suffered tough losses on the day while St. John’s, Molloy and NY Tech came out on top.
Here’s how it went down:
(Make sure to check out Orlin & Cohen by clicking here).
Division I:
Stony Brook, taking on a tough opponent in Clemson, gave up an early two-spot that they would never fight back from. Clemson pitcher Sam Weatherly tossed an incredible six innings, only allowing two hits and collecting his first win of the season. Seawolves starting pitcher, Jared Milch, pitched well, pumping out a solid six innings and only giving up two runs in the first two innings. While being slapped with the loss, Milch impressed with how he pitched around a dominant Tigers lineup.
While Stony Brook’s offense went dormant, they did threaten on three occasions loading the bases – including in the eighth and ninth innings. Here’s a couple individuals performers that did well.
- Sophomore third basemen Evan Giordano, had some success at the plate today. Getting on base twice, Evan went 1-for-2 while working a walk out of the number two spot in the line up.
- As mentioned before, senior pitcher Jared Milch tossed a good game for the Seawolves. Pitching six innings and only allowing two earned runs, one coming off of a ground ball double play.
Stony Brook will hope to get their second win of the season tomorrow in game two of the series against Clemson at 3 pm.
Fordham seemed to be in line for their second win of the season until a late offensive surge by Cal State Northridge led to a 12-5 defeat. Fordham took a 4-1 lead in the third inning from RBI hits by Jason Coules and Matt Tarabek along with an RBI fielder’s choice by Domenico Doria. After that it seemed to be downhill for the Ram’s, CSUN pulled away in the 7th and 8th innings scoring 11 unanswered runs. Some of the big blows coming from Jason Ajamian who drove in three runs on two hits during the offensive the two innings.
Fordham held their own for most of the game due in part to these key guys:
- Senior DH Alvin Melendez, went 2-for-4 and scoring two of Fordham’s five runs. Melendez pushes his average even higher and sits at .308 going into the sixth game of the season.
- Jason Coules, the sophomore from Belmore, had himself a day. Going 3-for-4 on the day, Coules drove in a pair of runs and scored one.
- Right behind Coules in the lineup was senior Matt Tarabek who did damage for the Rams, going 4-4, driving in two runs and scoring one as well.
Fordham plays game two of the series against CSUN tomorrow at 4 pm.
St. John’s came away with a victory on the west coast against Cal. The game began at 9:05 eastern time and took three hours and 40 minutes, so we don’t blame you if you didn’t make it to the final out.
The Johnnies won 10-6, after staving off a late rally from Cal. The Red Storm compiled 12 hits on the night, with multi-hit games from Carson Bartels, Mitchell Henshaw, Sean McGeehan and Ryan Markey. Sean Hogan delivered the crushing blow, a two-run HR in the 9th inning to provide some insurance. He drove in three runs on the evening. Peter Abinanti drove in two runs.
Five pitchers combined to record the victory. Nick Mondak started, but labored through four innings and walked five. Dom Coombe came on in relief and went 1.2 innings, allowing three runs. Chris Stefl came on but allowed a hit and a walk before giving way to Brandon Backman – who ultimately earned the victory. He went 2.1 shutout innings with four punch outs. Ethan Routzahn pitched the ninth with a punchout.
With the victory, the Johnnies are now 2-2 and will play again tonight at 6 pm in Berkeley, CA.
Division II:
New York Tech opened up their season after a washout on Thursday down in Myrtle Beach, S.C. They took on familiar foes from Franklin Pierce – they eliminated them last year in the East Regional and also fired a no-hitter on the first weekend of the season. While this game wasn’t a no-hitter, it was just how they would draw it up.
The story of the game was the pitching as grad student Chris Mott fired 6.2 shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out eight Ravens. The Bears’ revamped bullpen did their job as Ryan Mueller, Tyler Schmid and Brandon Alberto combined to throw 2.1 shutout innings. Credit to Alberto to fighting back from Tommy John and showing no rust after a lengthy absence from the field. The pitching staff held the Ravens to just five hits.
The offense was led by EJ Exposito – the freshman making his collegiate debut went 3-for-3 with an RBI and run scored. Ryan Kuskowski, Kieran Dowd and Andrew Florides also had multi-hit games. Note: Andres Auffant pitched well for Franklin Pierce making his collegiate debut. We last saw him throwing in the Long Island Championship for Center Moriches on his way to a perfect 10-0 season.
The Bears will play a DH today against Southern Connecticut State beginning at 2:30 pm, and they will play single games against Wilmington and New Haven on Sunday before heading back north.
Molloy opened their season with a bang, defeating Concordia 10-2 in game one of the season. The Lion’s struck late but with a vengeance, plating all ten runs in the 6th and 7th innings. With the whole team lending a hand in the offensive outbreak, sophomore catcher Thomas Brady drove in two runs on three hits, leading his team to their first win of the season. Freshman Charlie Cucchiara (East Meadow) recorded the save in his collegiate debut while Joe Minucci (East Meadow) earned the win after throwing six strong.
Molloy’s offense carried over into game two, scoring eleven runs in the first two innings and taking a commanding 11-1 lead. Unfortunately that ten-run lead would not hold up, Concordia came back to score eleven unanswered runs and take the lead going into the 5th inning. With a game-tying single by Matt Overton, the once blowout game was quickly setting up for a dramatic finish. In the bottom of the 7th, Concordia completed the comeback and defeated Molloy in walk-off fashion with a base hit by DH Peter Lawless (Kellenberg)
The Lions’ offense was surging, making it a great day at the plate for many guys:
- Third Baseman, Jake McCarthy went 5-for-9 in both games, driving in four runs and scoring once in the offensive overload.
- Matt Overton, the junior from Hauppauge, went 4-for-7 on the day while tallying three RBIs and scoring two runs.
- Catcher Brady Thomas, had an impressive game one, going 3-for-5 and driving in two runs, leading his team in the 10-2 win.
Molloy plays game three of the season tomorrow at 11 am against the Wilmington University Wildcats.
Division III:
Old Westbury opened up their season with a hard-fought battle against the #11 Kean University Panthers. In a back-and-forth battle which saw Old Westbury leading for most of the game ended in heartbreaking fashion. In the bottom of the 9th, Panthers right fielder Zachary Marzano doubled down the right field line and drove home Chris Ciaccio, ending the game in walk-off fashion for the Panthers. While losses aren’t positive, there are a lot of good things Old Westbury can take away from this hard fought game against their nationally ranked opponent. A couple of guys who shined for Old Westbury were:
- Third baseman Shaun Kaminski, opened his season by going 2-for-4 and driving in a run. Kaminski opened up the scoring for the Panthers by reaching on an error by third baseman Mike Perone.
- Senior Branden Wilson, tallied two hits in four at bats and an RBI to break the 2-2 tie in the 7th inning.
- Senior pitcher Matt Bohenek tossed a solid four innings for the Panthers, only allowing three hits and giving up one earned run against a very potent offense.
Old Westbury plays their next game Tuesday, March 3rd against Rutgers Newark at 3:30 pm.
