by Mike Merolle
Opening week for the MLB has started but college baseball has been rolling a month into the season. Nearly all local teams had a successful Saturday adding to their win columns.
Division-I:
St. John’s 11 — Villanova 0
In a Big East matchup, the St. John’s Red Storm shutout Villanova in an 11-0 victory. It’s St. John’s fourth shutout of the season and they improve to 2-0 in conference play.
St. John’s put pressure on the Wildcats early as they loaded the bases. Paul Orbon drove in two runs with a single up the middle. They added five runs in the fourth inning to make it 7-0 highlighted by Ben Beauchamp’s 2 RBI double and Jimmy Keenan’s RBI single.
The Johnnies kept piling on with a Jackson Tucker RBI double, Luke Orbon 2 RBI single, and Paul Orbon adding another RBI through a sacrifice fly.
On the mound, Evan Chaffee improves to 2-0 on the season after striking out two and allowing zero runs in 5.2 innings pitched. Kyle Chase pitched the final three innings with five strikeouts to earn his first collegiate save.
St. John’s will look for the series sweep on Sunday against Villanova at noon.
Stony Brook 9 — Elon 1
The Seawolves defeated Elon 9-1 thanks to a loaded offense and strong pitching performance.
Matt Brown-Eiring came to play for Stony Brook. Brown-Eiring had four hits and five RBI, including a home run and a double. Evan Fox also impressed, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a walk.
Nick Rizzo earned his third win of the season, making his record 3-3. Rizzo struck out three, walked three, and gave up one run on four hits in 5.2 innings pitched. Erik Paulsen came on in relief and pitched 3.1 shutout innings to earn his third save of the season.
Stony Brook will look to sweep Elon in the third game of the series on Sunday at noon.
Hofstra 5 — Delaware 4 (F/11)
It was a thriller for the Pride on Saturday as they defeated Delaware in extras, 5-4, after a three-run ninth inning.
The game did not start with scoring coming out of the gate. The first runs were scored by Hofstra in the fifth. Matt Pelcher’s sacrifice fly and Penn Sealey’s RBI single made it a 2-0 Hofstra lead. Delaware responded and scored a run of their own in the seventh.
An RBI triple by Steve Harrington and an RBI double by Will Kennedy made it a 4-1 game, until the ninth. Delaware’s bats rallied and scored three runs to tie it in the ninth off of RBI singles, doubles, and wild pitches.
Santino Rosso hit an RBI single in the 11th inning to give Hofstra a 5-4 lead. Ryan McLaughlin pitched the 10th and 11th inning to earn his first win of his collegiate career.
With the series split 1-1, Hofstra will face Delaware for the series finale on Sunday at noon.
Fordham 12 — Richmond 2
Fordham defeated Richmond 12-2 after a strong pitching outing and scoring 12 runs on 12 hits.
The Rams got to work early scoring four runs in the first. With the bases loaded, Steve Luttazi hit an RBI single. Two more runs were scored on a Richmond error and Cian Sahler drove one in for Fordham on a groundout.
Andrew Kanellis hit an RBI double in the second to make it 5-0. Richmond showed some fight in the third as they scored two runs but Fordham’s Jack Vallario hit an RBI single in response to make it 7-2.
The Rams poured it on in the seventh as they scored six runs to put it away. Sahler and Daniel Bucciero had two-run singles, and Tommy McAndrews and Chris Genaro had RBI doubles.
Brixton Lofgren earned his first collegiate win after allowing two hits in three scoreless innings in relief of the starter, Aidan Dowd.
Fordham will return to action against Richmond on Sunday at noon to look for the series sweep.
LIU 7 — Maryland Eastern Shore 4
The LIU Sharks rallied late with a five-run ninth inning to defeat Maryland Eastern Shore 7-4.
LIU trailed 4-2 heading into the ninth. They managed to load the bases to put pressure on MES. Seth Surrett walked to add a run for the Sharks, 4-3. Chandler Ketchup then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at four.
Benjamin Fierenzi grounded out at second but scored Jarod Wade in the process to give the Sharks a 5-4 lead. Noah Sorensen hit a two-RBI single to ensure the win.
Dominic Pieto started the game and went 6.2 innings striking out six and allowing four runs on ten hits. PJ Moritz earned the win making his record 2-1. Mortiz struck out two in 1.1 innings pitched. Jack VanDoran closed the game and earned his sixth save of the year with one strikeout and two hits allowed.
LIU will look for the series sweep against MES in Brookville on Sunday at 1 pm.
Division-II:
Adelphi vs. Southern Connecticut State (doubleheader)
Game 1: Adelphi 4 — SCS 1
Adelphi’s Carlos Acosta was stellar on the mound in game one against Southern Connecticut State. Acosta struck out five and did not allow an earned run in 5.1 innings pitched.
SCS scored the first run of the game off of an Adelphi error. In the fifth, Jack Wishner tied the game after scoring off of a misplayed ground ball. Alec Maag and Joe Pellegrino each had RBI singles that made the score 3-1 Adelphi.
Acosta earned the win in game one and Coleton Reitan earned the save after closing the final 3.2 innings.
Game 2: Adelphi 0 — SCS 10
SCS’ ace, Steve Phillips, shut out Adelphi in game two. Phillips had a career-high 10 strikeouts in over seven innings pitched.
Only four Adelphi batters were able to tally a hit against Phillips. On the other side, SCS scored 10 runs off of 11 hits. They put the nail in the coffin in the later stages of the game as they scored seven runs across the 7th and 8th.
Adelphi will look for redemption after the game two blowout on Sunday against SCS at 1 pm.
Queens vs. D’Youville (doubleheader)
Game 1: Queens 0 — D’Youville 2
Queens got off to a rocky start in game one being held to only two hits in the entire game. The two hits came from Marc Cisco and Thomas Napolitano Jr.
On the mound, Caleb Cassie received the loss after allowing two runs on five hits in seven innings pitched. Joshuel Rodriguez came on in relief and struck out two.
D’Youville’s two runs came off a costly error by Queens resulting in a 2-0 Knights loss. Game 2: Queens 10 — D’Youville 8 (7 innings)
Game two showed much more promise. Queens had 16 hits in the game highlighted by Cisco going 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs, and Jorsixt Jimenez going 3-for-4 with a home run and a double.
D’Youville led 2-0 until Matt Filip drove a run in. D’Youville answered with four runs in the fourth and two in the sixth to take a commanding 8-1 lead.
Queens then started their rally. The highlights were Jimenez hitting a solo shot, Napolitano Jr. hitting an RBI single, and Cisco driving in the winning run to make it 9-8. Cisco was driven in for an insurance run to make it 10-8.
Queens will face D’Youville on Sunday for the last time of the series at noon.
Division-III:
Maritime vs. SUNY Old Westbury (doubleheader)
Game 1: Maritime 9 — SUNY Old Westbury 6 (7 innings)
Maritime got to a 6-0 lead after four innings in game one against SUNY Old Westbury. Harry Leipold hit a two-run homer, Alex Bardi hit a three-run shot, and a double steal made it six runs.
Matt Demme was throwing a no-hitter until the fifth when SUNY Old Westbury got four singles to score two and six hits on Jack Kellner to make it 6-5. Freddy Forgione put the nail in the coffin after his homer made it 9-5 Maritime.
Game 2: Maritime 10 — SUNY Old Westbury 1
Maritime picked up where they left off in game one by scoring six runs in the first inning of game two. Bardi and Randy Ventura each hit a three-run shot to make it 6-0.
In the fourth, the Privateers scored four more to increase the lead to 10-0. Forgione drove two with his double and Bardi went deep again to make it his second of the game and third of the day. SUNY Old Westbury’s Jacob Taormina scored on a wild pitch to add their only run.
Maritime’s Brandon Stanley improved to 6-1 after striking out eight and allowing one run on eight hits.
