The College of Staten Island traveled to Randall’s Island this afternoon to take on CUNYAC opponents, Baruch College at 3:30 pm. The Dolphins were coming off a record setting sweep of Farmingdale State, in which they set the CSI all-time win streak record. They increased that win streak this afternoon with a 12-2 and 27-5 score line against the Bearcats. The Dolphins, with the sweep, locked up the number one seed for the CUNYAC Championship in two weeks. CSI improved to a 23-3 overall record while staying a perfect 10-0 in the CUNYAC.
Game 1: Staten Island 12, Baruch 2
The senior P/2B Jacqueline Cautela (11-0) allowed two runs on one hit in five innings, including allowing her first home run of the season. The victory gave Cautela her 11th straight win of the season to keep her record unblemished on the year while also catapulting her to the top of the CSI record books. The win gave Cautela 56 for her career which leapfrogs Danielle Ponsiglione who held the record with 55.
After being held scoreless for two straight innings, the Dolphins were able to find their bats and get on the board in the third inning. The Dolphins sent eight batters to the plate in the third, and Patricia Riches collected two RBIs on a homerun over the center field wall to put the Dolphins up 2-0 as Cautela had reached on an error by Kristen Podlovits in left field. Kristy Colangelo lined a double down the left field line to plate Vanessa Jioia who reached on a throwing error. Ashley Notaro would reached via a base on balls and steal second before being drove home by Jamie Holmes with a sacrifice fly to left field.
The Dolphins nearly doubled their run total from the inning before with a seven run inning in the top of the fourth to initiate the mercy rule by taking an 11-0 lead. Julianna Cretella singled to left field and was moved over to second base via a single by Cautela. Antoinette Galbo would battle at the plate and be walked to load the bases. Riches, tallied two RBIs the inning before, lined one down the left field line to score both Cretella and Cautela. During Jioia’s at-bat, Galbo would get caught in a run down and would get out of the jam and score before Jioia would single to right field, advancing Riches to third. Colangelo would collect her second RBI of the game with a single to left field, scoring Riches from third.
Holmes waited for her pitch when it was her turn at the dish and tattooed one out of the park, over the left field wall for a three RBI homer for the last runs of the inning by the Dolphins. Cautela, in the very next inning would send another ball out of the park, this time over the left center field wall, for the third home run of the game for the Dolphins and the third of the season for the senior.
The Bearcats would tally two runs in the bottom of the 5th on one hit and one error by the Dolphins to prevent the Dolphins from shutting them out.
Riches finished game one, 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs while Colangelo also finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and runs.
Game 2: Staten Island 27, Baruch 5
Nicolette Trapani was eager to get into the circle this afternoon to pick up her eighth win of the season in 10 appearances. Trapani allowed two runs on two hits with four strikeouts in three innings of action before giving way to Alexandra Conanan who came in and pitched the final two innings and tallied two strikeouts and allowed three runs on four hits.
Game two was one for the record books for the Dolphins as they broke or tied many single game records. To start it off, the 27 runs were the most that the Staten Island softball program has scored on any Baruch team. The Dolphins would tally four home runs in this game, which ties the single game record in CSI school history and the last time that was done was during the 2009 season. To keep the trend going Staten Island had 46 at-bats, good for third most, while both the 27 hits and 27 runs are good for fourth most in CSI school history.
The Dolphins didn’t wait until the third inning to get on the scoreboard in game two as they posted 9 runs in the first inning. Galbo singled to reach safely before stealing second and putting herself into scoring position. Riches would plate Galbo with a double down the left field line which would start a record tying trend for the freshman shortstop. Jioia, who has been in a small batting slump as of late, found her swing and crushed one over the fence for a two RBI homer. After Colangelo reached on a single and Notaro found her way on via an error by Juliann Gross. With two runners on, Holmes hit a hard double to left center which scored both Notaro and Colangelo. At this point the Dolphins had already batted around, which brought up Riches once again, and with two runners on base she would tally her second and third RBI of the inning with a double to left field. The Dolphins would finish the inning with 9 runs but their scoring spree had only just begun.
The Bearcats used the momentum they had from the final inning of the previous game to plate two runs in the first inning against the Dolphins. Staten Island allowed two runs on two hits while committing an error. Both of the runs that crossed were unearned via the error, however it was a pair of infield singles by Gross and Olivia Dellston that allowed the Bearcats to get on the board.
Christina Ceverizzo would get the Dolphins going in the top of the second with a double to center field and would round second and make it to third via an error by the center fielder. Ceverizzo would not be stranded on third long as Galbo would slap one up the middle for an RBI single for the first run of a five run inning for the Dolphins. Riches once again came to the plate with a chance to collect more RBIs and she did just that. Riches doubled to center field to plate three more runs, increasing her RBI total to five in the game, just two shy of tying her own CSI school record of seven which she set earlier this year.
The Bearcats were able to stop the scoring onslaught by the Dolphins for an inning, but the worst was yet to come as the Dolphins were preparing for their biggest scoring inning of the season.
The Dolphins exploded for 12 runs in the top of the fourth inning to increase their lead to 26-2 over their CUNYAC opponents. Both Galbo and Riches hit consecutive singles before scoring on a Jioia homer, her second of the game, third of the season. Kristen Meagher had a breakout game in game two this afternoon. After starting the season 0-for-18 at the plate, Meagher would hit a double and her second career home run which plated two Dolphins during the 12-run explosion in the fourth. The Dolphins would score 12 runs on 12 hits in the top of the fourth as the Bearcats could not slow the Dolphins’ offense down.
Baruch was able to score three runs in the bottom of the fourth but were unable to dig themselves out of the ditch they found themselves in.
Staten Island scored one more run in the top of the fifth to tally 27 runs in the game to pick up their 23rd win of the season.
Riches tied her CSI school record with seven RBIs in a game in which she finished 5-for-6 with four runs. Jioia also had a standout day, finishing 2-for-3 with five RBIs and a pair of home runs while Holmes went 2-for-4 with five RBIs.
The Dolphins will have a day off and head back into action on Thursday, April 20 where they will host Montclair State University at 3:30 pm at the CSI Softball Complex.
