The College of Staten Island softball team made history this afternoon, winning their 16th and 17th-straight games with a road doubleheader win over Farmingdale State, 7-2, & 2-1, in Farmingdale, NY.  The Dolphins are now 21-3 overall while the Rams leveled to 14-14.

GAME ONE
Dolphins starter Jacqueline Cautela came into the game with a 51-inning streak of not allowing an earned run, and CSI certainly wanted to keep that going, especially after taking a 3-0 lead in the very first inning.  

There, Cautela led off with a single, and after stealing and a ground out, Patricia Riches was then hit by a pitch and also stole second.  With runners at second and third, Vanessa Jioia then grounded out, but both runs would come home thanks to an error.  CSI kept the rally going, as Kristy Colangelo walked and was plated by an Ashley Notaro triple.  FSC starting pitcher Julia Walpole got out of the inning from there, but CSI had all the runs they would need.

Still the Rams were able to get on the scoreboard in their turn of the first.  The run, however, was unearned, as Alexis Luna earned on via error, and after a groundout got her to third, she was waved in on a sac fly by Sierra Cardenales, making it 3-1.

CSI would get the run back in the third.  Riches got things started with a single and after taking second on a wild pitch, she was plated by a Jioia single.  In the very next inning, Jamie Holmes came in for CSI on a Julianna Cretella single.  Cretella would later come in after getting over to third and scoring on a wild pitch.  Cautela would do the same to make it 7-1, putting CSI in complete control.

But FSC had time to spoil Cautela’s streak of unearned runs allowed in their turn of the fifth inning.  Shannon Griffith started with a lead-off single, and after advancing to second on a groundout and to third on a wild pitch, she was plated by an Allison Dailey sac fly.

Cautela would walk batters in the sixth and seventh innings but that was it, as she would keep FSC off of the scoreboard, going the distance for her 10th win in 10 starts.  CSI would out-hit FSC, 9-2, with Cautela and Notaro each registering a pair of hits.  Cautela would fan three batters in the win, while Walpole took the loss, allowing six earned runs on 9 hits, striking out a pair.

GAME TWO
In a much tighter second game, the Dolphins held a modest lead most of the way and then held on late in a 2-1 win, with Alison Meagher tossing the complete-game six-hitter.

Like in the opener, CSI would spot Meagher a lead.  This time in the first inning, Cautela led off with a triple to left field.  Antoinette Galbo then sacrificed herself via bunt at first base but would score Cautela to make it 1-0.  From there, Julia Walpole, making her second start of the afternoon settled down very well, allowing only two base runners from innings two through five.

It wasn’t until the sixth inning that CSI would register another hit.  It started with a one-out bunt single by Galbo and then Riches followed with a seeing eye single of her own.  Jioia sacrificed herself to move both runners over and then Colangelo followed with an RBI double that scored Galbo but kept Riches locked at third.  Walpole got out of the jam, but CSI took a 2-0 lead.

That seemed fine for Meagher, who was motoring through the innings.  She escaped a jam in the second inning and fourth, stranding two runners on base each time.  But things got hairy in the seventh.  Down to their final three outs, FSC got things started witha  lead-off single by Emily Gaeta, and pinch runner Ginger Sherry advanced via a groundout and moved to third on a single by Cardenales.  Jessica Lombardo then stroked a fly to right field that was able to be caught but scored Sherry from third making it 2-1.  with a runner at second, Meagher, however, got Christina Rayfield to strike out swinging to end the game, her fourth K of the game.

FSC out-hit CSI, 6-4, in the second contest, with Gaeta going 2-3.  Meagher improved to 4-1 with the win for CSI.

In 1990, the Dolphins reeled off 16-straight wins, a school record until this afternoon.  The Dolphins will be right back to work tomorrow, when they travel to Randall’s Island to take on Baruch College in a CUNYAC doubleheader beginning at 3:30pm.