Bryan Moreno went 3-for-7 on the afternoon with three runs scored and an RBI against Stevens
After almost a week of idle activity thanks to the local weather, the College of Staten Island men’s baseball team got back to activity Sunday, splitting a twinbill with Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. An affiliate member of the CUNY Athletic Conference, the games counted against the conference schedule, making both teams 1-1 following play. CSI bumped their overall record to 2-5, while the Ducks advanced to 5-2.
In the opener, CSI scored all four of their runs in the first two innings off of Stevens’ starter Matt Buccheri. In the top half of the first inning, CSI started with consecutive singles by Bryan Moreno, Will DiFede, and Chris Ramanauskas loaded the bags. Clean-up hitter Michael Milazzo then pelted a single down the left field line, scoring a pair an opening the CSI lead to 2-0.
Buccheri rebounded to retire the next three CSI batters via the strikeout, but in the second frame, the Dolphins countered again. With one out, Dan Lynch singled via a bunt, and then stole second base. Moreno then scorched a double into right-centerfield, scoring Lynch. Later, with two out and Lynch at second base, Ramanauskas notched his second basehit of the game, scoring Moreno and giving CSI all the offense it would eventually need.
Stevens countered with a run in the bottom of the second off of CSI starter Richard Anderson, and then added single runs in the fifth and sixth to get closer, but the senior rebounded nicely by retiring Stevens in order in the last of the seventh for the complete-game victory, allowing eight hits while fanning a pair. Jonathan Toro scored the only multi-hit game for Stevens, going 2-for-3 at the dish with an RBI.
In the second game, it was the Ducks’ Tyler Courter that took the spotlight on the mound, settling in to throw a gem. CSI took a 1-0 lead early, again via a first-inning run on a Ramanauskas RBI-ground-out that scored Moreno, who started the inning off with a single. The hit by Moreno, however, was one of only two allowed by Courter in six innings, as Stevens added two runs in the third, another in the fourth, and then four more insurance tallies in the sixth to earn a 7-1 win.
Kieran Monaghan took the loss for CSI, allowing six runs on seven hits in 5.2 innings. The dagger in the game came on a Ryan Mannello three-run homerun off of Jonathan Aponte, who came on in relief of Monaghan in the sixth. For Mannello, it was his only at-bat of the entire afternoon.
CSI is back in action on Wednesday, when they play their home opener at 4:30pm against SUNY – Old Westbury as part of non-conference action.
