Ryan Kuskowski on his walk-off HR against Mercy pic.twitter.com/XszI1SAsxh
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 31, 2018
In what took nearly four hours, Ryan Kuskowski wasted no time sending one over the fence in the tenth inning delivering the victory for NYIT.
The Bears trailed 5-0 before they came to bat in the first inning, but never wavered in their optimism and were able to complete the comeback to win Game 1 of their double header against Mercy by the score of 11-10 in 10 innings. Starter Matt Bartnik departed with two outs in the first inning and the Bears trailing by five, but reliever D.J. Masuck came in and fired 5.1 shutout innings to allow the Bears’ bats get to work.
They scored three in the first, one in the second and two in the third to take a 7-5 lead after three innings.
Kuskowski, Joey Fusco and Dominic Paolo drove in runs with singles, Jake Lebel hit an RBI double and Brendan Dowd scored on a wild pitch to provide the 7-5 lead.
Mercy would fight back, though, scoring five times in the seventh inning with the big blog coming on an inside-the-park three-run home run to center field in which CF Nic Lombardi laid out full extension and nearly made a sensational catch but the ball caromed off the wall which allowed Adonis Garcia to come all the way around to score.
It looked bleak, but in the eighth Fusco ripped an RBI double to cut the lead to 10-8 and Matt Deangelis followed with a clutch two-run double to right center to tie the game at 10.
Bears RHP Brandon Alberto came in and fired two shutout innings, working out of a 2nd & 3rd jam in the 10th to allow Kuskowski the chance for the heroics which he did on the first pitch of the inning.
In Game 2, NYIT starter Alex Passarella struggled and the Bears lost 10-3. They fall to 5-11-1 on the season and will be back in action on Monday at Mercy to complete the series.
