Postgame Interview – The College of Staten Island took on #24 ranked Kean University in a doubleheader tonight capped off by a wild game two.  The Dolphins were swept by the Cougars by the time the night was done and dropped game one, 4-0, and game two, 12-8.  With the pair of wins the Cougars advanced to, 19-7-1, while the Dolphins fell to 17-7 overall.

The Dolphins found themselves in a dangerous situation in the first inning after Jacqueline Cautela got the first two batters out then allowed a single which was followed by an error by Chyanne Gilliam to put runners on second and third.  Cautela would walk the next batter and load the bases only to force a fly out to Danielle Locke in left center for the final out of the inning and keeping the Cougars off of the scoreboard.

The Dolphins would go down in order in their first at bat but Cautela would respond with two strikeouts of her own in the top of the second.  Courtney Yard, the pitcher for the Cougars kept the Dolphins batters at bay as the Dolphins continued to go down 1, 2, 3 through three innings of play.

The Cougars were first on the board when Yard hit a 2 RBI home run over the left field wall for the first runs of the game.

Yard shut the Dolphins out in game one and only allowed one hit while her team committed one error.  The Cougars went on to score two more runs in the seventh inning for a final score of, 4-0, in favor of Kean University.
Game two was a wild back-and-forth game which saw the lead change five times before the Cougars finally holding off the Dolphins and scoring 9 of their own runs in the final three innings of the game.

Nicolette Trapani got the start in the circle in game two and pitched 5.1 innings and allowed 10 runs on 15 hits with four strikeouts before Jacqueline Cautela came in and allowed two runs on three hits with a single strikeout.

Staten Island fell behind early in game two before storming back in the third inning when Brittany Smith singled and was advanced to second via a sacrifice bunt by Christina Tufano to move her into scoring position.   Smith who doesn’t like to stay on the bases longer than she has to, stole third base and was brought home by Gilliam who doubled to left field.  CSI had the Cougars with their backs against the wall as the bases were loaded with two outs when Kristy Colangelo came to the plate and battled hard but struck out swinging in the end which left three runners on the bases and kept the game tied at 3-3.

Kean turned it up in the final three innings and it started in the fifth when they scored four runs on four hits and only left one runner on the bases.

CSI wasn’t done just yet as they regained the lead with a four run inning of their own when Tufano crushed a double to right field to score Colangelo and Smith.  Gilliam would return the favor at the next at bat bringing Tufano home.  Danielle Locke dialed in and found her pitch and smacked it over the center fielders head for an RBI triple to give the Dolphins the lead back.

The Dolphin lead would not last long once again as the Kean offense continued to fire on all cylinders while the Dolphin offense seemed to fizzle out in the final two innings after Yard came back in to pitch.

The Cougars connected 18 times in the second game and scored 12 runs.  The Dolphins had 9 hits and eight runs despite the Cougars committing five errors in the game.

The Dolphins are back in action this weekend when they face Baruch College in a doubleheader here at CSI Softball Complex in Staten Island, NY.