by Diana Ramirez and Vin Messana
For those Molloy die-hard fans that stuck it out through a long rain delay, they were rewarded with a 9-7 hard-earned victory over American International College.
The game appeared to be a laugher early on as the Lions posted a five-spot in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Matt Overton to score James Messina. They added two more on an RBI double by Chris Peralta to score Sean Hogan and Pete Theodorellis. Thomas Brady added a two-run single to score Peralta and Overton.
The Lions continued to tack on runs in the middle innings.
An unearned run in the third inning extended the lead to 6-0 and Matt Overton crushed a solo HR to open up a 7-0 lead. In the fourth inning, Jake Saltzman ripped an RBI single to score Peralta and make it 8-0. At that stage of the game, it appeared the lead was safe.
Molloy’s starter, Billy Wildeman, was very effective. He went five innings, allowing just one run on one hit with three strikeouts.
AIC made it quite a game, though.
In the top of the sixth, AIC broke through for six runs in the sixth inning as 11 batters came to the plate. Theodorellis came on in relief of Connor Huckemeyer, who went 0.1 of an inning. AIC even got within one run when a two-run single by DH Matt Costanza made it 8-7 but Theodorellis provided what the Lions needed and that was a strikeout to end the jam.
He was provided length. He wound up going 3.2 innings, recording the save while striking out six batters. The Lions were able to score an insurance run on an RBI single by Chris Peralta.
The Lions improved their record to 5-2 on the season, but it did not come easy. Their pitchers threw 193 pitches to get through this one.
Final: Molloy 9, AIC 7
WP: Billy Wildeman
S: Pete Theodorellis (3.2 IP, 6 K)Pete Theodorellis also went 3-for-4 with a walk pic.twitter.com/GIkwqPH4UE
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 4, 2020
Head Coach Joe Fucarino spoke about the role of Theodorellis saying, “We’ve got a lot of roles for Pete. Right now, he’s in our DH spot so we got him working out of the ‘pen and we just see where that lies, we’re trying to build some other arms and we’ll see where Pete goes but right now, he’s one of our good guys out of the pen.”
He also spoke about the chemistry of this team, “these guys are pretty close knit so we just want to come out and work hard everyday and grow as a team, just keeping it really simple and just play good baseball each day and not worry about the next day”
They will head to Cary, NC to play at the USA Training Complex. They will play four games over the weekend (Franklin Pierce, Slippery Rock, Clarion, New Haven).
