Saturday was a brutally cold day, but there was no stopping baseball from being played in our northeast region. A few local teams were in action, and it was an overall successful day once again.
Here’s how it went down…
Fordham opened up their 2021 season with a victory over NJIT. I was planning to attend but the trip was littered with traffic and was going to take over 2 hours so I would’ve arrived late. Combine that with the brutal temperature, and I’m not complaining about not going. Matt Mikulski started for the Rams, went four innings, struck out eight and was awarded the victory. He allowed two ER on four hits. Alex Henderson pitched 1.2 innings in relief, allowing one ER. Jack Popolizio earned the hard, 10-out save, striking out three batters along the way. The offense didn’t muster much. They compiled only six hits, with no player amassing multi-hits. The runs were driven in by C.J. Vazquez, Jason Coules, Casey Brown and Trey Maeker.
They will be back in action today beginning at noon.
St. John’s continued their hot start to the season with a 16-4 win over Sacred Heart. Ian Murphy started, allowing 0 ER over 5.0 IP, yielding just four hits and striking out five. The offense was relentless, compiling 16 hits. Three players (Jake Lazzaro, Dave Williams and Carlos Hidalgo) amassed three hits. It was Lazzaro’s first three-hit game of the season after notching four such games in the abbreviated 2020 season. Hidalgo was making his first collegiate start. The big blow was a grand slam off the bat of Ryan Hogan in the third that opened up an 8-0 lead which effectively ended the game. Brian Morrell, Tim McHugh and Nick Schwartz all had appearances in the game, with McHugh getting hit by a pitch and scoring a run.
They will play a DH against Sacred Heart at home today.
Molloy opened up their 2021 season with a DH split with Felician. They won Game 1 easily, 15-5. Timmy Panetta, their ace, was outstanding. He went six strong innings, yielded just one run on three hits while striking out seven. Ryan Karp and Timmy Mott came on in relief, although Mott did allow four runs in his one inning of work. The offense posted 11 hits and drew 13 walks. Jake McCarthy turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead with one swing of the bat in the fourth inning. They would eventually extend their lead to 15-1 by the 8th inning. David Franchi went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI, Tom Brady went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI.
In the second game, Felician would get even.
The Lions led 7-3 in the fourth inning after a two-run triple by Sean Hogan, but Felician would fight back. Edwin Tavarez hit a go-ahead two-run shot for Felician in the fifth inning and Mikey Florides extended the lead with an RBI single. Molloy got one back in the sixth on a wild pitch, but that’s as close as they would get as the game ended 11-8. Chris Wiercinski was tagged with the loss, he allowed three ER over 1.1 IP.
Despite the loss, they did knock 11 hits and draw 4 walks. James Messina went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, Sean Hogan drove in five runs and Jacob McCarthy had two hits. The Lions will be back in action on Tuesday against Felician in their home opener beginning at 3:30 when the temperature is expected to be in the mid-50s.
St. Joseph’s and Stony Brook were both cancelled due
