by Mike Anderson
Week 6 of the 2022 NCAA Baseball season is underway after Friday kicked off the latest set of games around the nation. The Long Island teams in action had a solid showing, going 4-3 in total. Let’s bounce around to see how each team did individually.
Division I:
Quinnipiac snapped St. John’s five-game winning streak with an 8-5 win behind a strong outing from Brandyn Garcia and a big day from the bottom of the order. Garcia battled command issues in his start as he walked five batters but stranded those runners and threw six scoreless innings. They spotted him early run support when first baseman Michael Kohn drove a three-run homer to right field in the top of the second. DH Ian Ostberg padded their lead with an RBI single in the next inning.
After taking a 4-0 lead, there would be no scoring again until the top of the eighth inning, when right fielder Sebastian Mueller hit a home run to make it 5-0 Quinnipiac. They tacked on another run when outfielder Jared Zimbardo doubled home a run to make the score 6-0.
St. John’s put on their rally caps in the bottom of the eighth, starting with a home run from third baseman Tate Ballestero to put them on the board. Later, DH Carlos Hidalgo doubled home a run and second baseman Max Shabestari drove a two-run homer to make it 6-4. However, Quinnipiac answered their rally on RBI singles from Mueller and Zimbardo to make it 8-4 in the top of the ninth. Ballestero would drive in another with an RBI single in the last of the ninth, but Gabriel Romano got himself out of trouble and shut the door on a nine-out save.
The two teams will meet again for game two on Saturday, starting at 5:00 p.m.
Today’s final play! pic.twitter.com/rCoc4DaURq
— Fordham Baseball (@FordhamBaseball) March 26, 2022
Fordham won their second in a row in a thrilling 10-9 win over Monmouth. In a game that saw three ties and four lead changes, this game was competitive wire-to-wire.
Fordham struck first by scoring on a throwing error in the bottom of the second but were immediately answered with a two-run homer from shortstop Dixon Black. Trailing 2-1 in the fourth, right fielder Richard Grund tied the game with an RBI single, and then third baseman Zach Selinger untied the game with a two-run homer. In the top of the fifth inning, corner infielder James Harmstead crushed a three-run homer to right-center, giving Monmouth the lead back at 5-4. A balk later in the inning scored another run to make it 6-4, but Fordham would draw even in the bottom of the sixth.
With the game tied at six in the top of the eighth, Nick Campana and Casey Caufield both hit RBI singles to put Monmouth back on top at 8-6. In the bottom of the eighth, pinch-hitter Casey Brown tied the game with a two-run single to left field. However, Monmouth took the momentum back on Harmstead’s second home run of the night–a solo homer in the top of the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth, second baseman Jack Harnisch and catcher Andy Semo worked back-to-back walks, and then a wild pitch put the tying and winning runs in scoring position with only one out. After a third walk loaded the bases, center fielder Cian Sahler, who came off the bench in the bottom of the eighth, hit a single to right field to win the game.
The walk-off improved Fordham to 4-15 on the year, and it gave them an even ten runs on ten hits for the game. The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon, with the first pitch to come at 1:00 p.m.
BALL GAME! #HOFSTRA WINS!! The Pride opens @CAASports play with a 6-2 win over Elon. #RoarWithPride pic.twitter.com/yk7E2WDrMn
— Hofstra Baseball (@HofstraBaseball) March 26, 2022
Hofstra beat Elon by a final score of 6-2, getting a good start from pitcher Mark Faello. It was both teams’ first conference game of the season, making it all the more important that Hofstra captured the opening-game win.
Second baseman Carlos Marte started the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the second to give Elon an early lead. Both pitchers would trade zeros from that point forward until the top of the fifth, when second baseman Santino Rosso put Hofstra in front with a two-run single. However, right fielder Alex Iadisernia would tie the game in the bottom of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right. In the top of the sixth, catcher Kevin Bruggeman gave Hofstra the lead back with an RBI single, and then Rosso added to it with an RBI single himself.
Now up 4-2, Faello would get through the sixth and make it to two outs in the seventh, where he was finally pulled in favor of Aljo Sujak. Faello only allowed two runs (one earned) in 6.2 innings, while fanning two and walking two.
In the top of the ninth, Frank DiMartino put the game away with a two-run single to make it 6-2 Hofstra, and they would go on to win by that score. Hofstra is now 9-7, and 1-0 in CAA play. Meanwhile, this game saw a pair of Long Island pitchers start the game, with Plainview-native Faello besting Ronkonkoma-native Joe Savino. Faello got the win and improved to 2-1, while Savino got the loss and fell to 1-2.
The two will meet up for game two tomorrow at 2:00 p.m..
Bryant was able to beat LIU in the two teams’ conference openers. The game was a bonafide pitcher’s duel, featuring the red-hot Josh Loeschorn of LIU and Collin Lowe of Bryant.
The scoring started in the bottom of the fourth when catcher John Tuccillo, who was a First-Team All-Conference player for Stony Brook last year, hit a sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, left fielder Shane Kelly sent a two-run double to left field to give Bryant a 3-0 lead. DH Alex Lane tacked on another run with a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, and Bryant led 4-0 heading to the seventh.
Lowe dominated the LIU lineup, inducing soft contact and letting his defense make the plays behind him all afternoon. He went eight innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits while only walking one but only striking out three. That one run came on a home run from catcher Colin Adams in the top of the eighth. Loeschorn was able to stretch his outing to 7.2 innings, allowing four earned runs but only on five hits, as he struck out seven and walked two. The ball was handed to reliever Austin Wainer in the top of the ninth inning, and he shut it down with his first save of the year to secure the win for Bryant.
The win was Lowe’s second of the year, while Loeschorn’s loss was his first. The two teams will rematch tomorrow, as game two will be underway at 1:00 p.m..
Maine remained unbeaten in conference play when they held off Stony Brook 10-9 on Friday night. Maine’s lineup beat up on Stony Brook starter Ben Fero, as he surrendered seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits in just 3.1 innings. They drew first blood with an RBI single from first baseman Joe Bramanti in the bottom of the first, but Stony Brook responded immediately with a three-spot in the top of the second. Shortstop Stanton Leuthner put Stony Brook ahead with a two-runs single to make it 3-1. However, Maine went tit-for-tat with a three spot of their own in the home half of the second.
Now 4-3 in the bottom of the third, shortstop Jake Marquez singled home a run to make it 5-3. Then in the bottom of the fourth, Maine blew the game open with five runs to take a 10-3 lead. Bramanti started it with an RBI single, and was later followed with an RBI single from third baseman Jake Rainess. Catcher Ryan Turenne capped the five-spot with a three-run homer to right field.
In the top of the fifth, Leuthner sparked some life back into Stony Brook with another two-run single. They wound up loading the bases that inning, and catcher Shane Paradine walked in another run. They continued to rally in the top of the seventh when second baseman Evan Fox hit a two-run homer to make the score 10-8 Maine. Later, Paradine would scratch across a run as he scored on a passed ball to make it a one-run game.
However, Matthew Pushard was able to bow his neck and halt the Stony Brook rally by slamming the door in the top of the ninth. He tossed an eight-out save to make Maine 4-0 in America East play and 7-11 overall.
This game was also the fourth consecutive one-run game that Stony Brook played in. Stony Brook is now 3-1 in the America East, and 7-13 overall.
Game two will be Saturday at 1:00 p.m., as Stony Brook will look to force a rubber game for Sunday.
Division II:
Adelphi blew out American International College 16-4 en route to winning their conference opener. The red-hot hitting Adelphi kept their bats scorching with a 17-hit performance from the lineup, leaving only seven runners on base.
Adelphi jumped out to an 8-0 lead through just the first three innings. Starting pitcher John Rizzo kept American International off the board while five different hitters drove in a run during that span. It wasn’t until the top of the sixth inning when American International found the scoreboard on an RBI double from DH Alejandro Mosquera. Both teams went on to score a couple of garbage-time runs, but the lead was simply too insurmountable for Adelphi to cough up. They finished the game just as strong as they started, scoring eight more runs over their final three innings to give them 16 on the day.
Five different Adelphi hitters had multi-hit games, with shortstop Jack Wishner leading the way for the team with four hits out of the nine-hole in the order. They hit five doubles and three homers. The home runs came from left fielder Kyle Olsen, center fielder Cooper Johnson, and DH Alex Rende, who entered the game as a pinch-runner. Rende, Olsen, and first baseman Michael Draskin all collected three RBIs each to co-lead the way. On the bump, Rizzo spotted Adelphi seven innings with just two runs on six hits. He whiffed seven without issuing a walk, and earned his first win of the season.
Adelphi is now 1-0 in NE10 play, and 9-4 overall. They will match up with American International again tomorrow for a doubleheader, with game one starting at noon and game two starting at 3:00 p.m..
Queens College also won their conference opener with a 5-2 road win at D’Youville. They played a very balanced game on both sides of the ball en route to a commanding win away from home.
Starter Julien Arcos threw a gem, giving Queens seven innings, only allowing two earned runs on three hits. He struck out seven and only walked two. He had a shutout going until the bottom of the seventh. However, during that scoreless stretch on his end, his offense was helping him out quietly.
The Queens offense played some small ball, moving runners over with productive outs and taking advantage of D’Youville errors. A sacrifice fly from catcher Nick Barreiros in the top of the second started the scoring, and an RBI groundout by left fielder Colin Diez tacked on another. Then in the fifth, another run scored on an error to make it 3-0. Center fielder Jayson Rodopoulos hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh to make it 4-0. They scored a fifth and final run on an error in the top of the seventh to put the game effectively out of reach.
D’Youville found the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run homer from right fielder John Rogowski, cutting the Queens lead to three. However, reliever Daniel Gargano took the ball from Arcos and got the final six outs without a bump in the road to give Queens the win.
Queens is now 6-7 overall, and 1-0 in the ECC. Games two and three will be played Saturday at noon and 3:00 p.m., respectively, as the doubleheader will wrap up their opening conference series.
Molloy had its Friday game postponed and moved to Sunday due to unplayable weather conditions. They will play a doubleheader against Lincoln University tomorrow, with game one starting at 1:00 p.m. and game two scheduled for 4:00 p.m.. This is also Molloy’s conference-opening series, as they will look to get themselves in the win column to start off their 2022 ECC season. Currently, they are 13-5 overall, while Lincoln is 4-17.
Division III:
No Div-III teams were scheduled to play Friday. However, twin bills are taking place all over Long Island on Saturday for the Div-III teams. USMMA and St. Joseph’s LI will square off in a doubleheader, with the games scheduled for 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.. Maritime and Farmingdale have a doubleheader against one another, with the first pitches scheduled for noon and 3:00 p.m., respectively. Old Westbury has a doubleheader at Manhattanville College with an 11:00 a.m. and a 2:00 p.m. game scheduled.
