The Staten Island Baseball team finally played their first home game of the season today against Baruch College after several cancellations due to poor field conditions and rain.  The Dolphins came out looking strong in game one and hit their way to an 8-3 victory over the Bearcats.  Game two went in favor of the Bearcats as they saw themselves on the winning side of a 10-3 score line.  The Dolphins came out of today with a 3-6 overall record and 1-1 in the CUNYAC while the Bearcats moved to 5-11 overall and 1-1 in the CUNYAC.

Through the first two innings it was a pitcher’s duel as the CUNYAC ERA leader Brian Russell (1-1, 0.69 ERA) kept the Bearcat batters guessing which kept them off the scoreboard for the first two innings.  Paul Perez (1-1, 3.93 ERA) was also able to keep the Dolphins scoreless through two.

The Bearcats were the first to break the stalemate in the third inning when Dan Daley hit a single to left field then at the very next at bat stole second base.  Daley advanced to third then was brought home by Eric Ulino who singled to center field.
CSI immediately answered when Nick Delprete hit a single to right field that was bobbled by the right fielder after Delprete had reached first which allowed him to get the extra base and strand him on second. Frank Sconzo who had been standing on second in scoring position when Delprete hit the single to right field and the error also allowed Sconzo to score tying the game up at one apiece.

Both teams would go scoreless in the fourth before opening the fifth inning wide open as the Dolphins would take a 5-3 lead after scoring four runs in the fifth. A pair of triples to center and right field by Sconzo and Delprete initiated the scoring outbreak for the Dolphins. The Bearcats had some defending issues of their own as they committed four errors in that inning which allowed the Dolphins to score four runs.

Russell went on to shutout the Bearcats in the last two innings and only allowed 1 earned run on the day.  The Dolphins capped off came one with three more runs in the sixth inning to seal the deal and give them their first CUNYAC win of the season.
Game two was a completely different story for the Dolphins as they fell to the Bearcats 10-3.  The Dolphins had their bats in game one and cracked 11 hits however, in game two the bats seemed to disappear as they were only able to garner six hits.
The Bearcats wasted no time in the second game and opened up the scoring right away in the first inning with a bases clearing double to bring in three runs.  Mike Fitzpatrick was the Dolphins’ starting pitcher in game two had to leave the game early due to an injury which brought in Ryan Kennedy.
 
Staten Island rallied back though and tied the game up at 3-3 with two runs in the second and one in the fourth.  The Bearcats were finally able to get back on the scoreboard as they were able to start connecting against Kennedy which led to three runs in the fifth inning which were all the Bearcats would have needed to win the game as the Dolphins went scoreless in the final three innings.

The Dolphins are back in action tomorrow at home against John Jay College at 4:30 pm.