The College of Staten Island baseball squad found themselves in a hole early, and their bid for a comeback would eventually fall short in a 7-5 defeat at the hands of Manhattanville College as part of non-league play in Purchase, NY. The Dolphins fell to 7-4 overall with the loss, while the Valiants leveled to 5-5.
A first-inning grand slam homerun by Robbie Lynch off of CSI starter Ryan Kennedy put the Valiants up 4-0, and from there the Dolphins chipped away, only to fall short with the tying run on base in the final inning. The Dolphins stranded 13 runners on base, a common theme throughout the afternoon.
After the first inning, CSI immediately got on the board with two runs in the second off of MC starter Pat Badia. Three walks surrounded a lone out before Joshua Mercado singled in Glenn Glennerster for a run, followed by a sac fly from Nick Delprete, chasing home Phil Ciprello. The Dolphins got to within a run an inning later when George Kantzian came in via error after reaching base on a single, making it 4-3.
Both teams settled from there until MC dropped in another two runs against reliever Josh Bernstein. An inning later, Jordanis Nunez drove in a double that scored another run off of CSI reliever Gerard Esposito, opening up a 7-3 lead.
After leaving the bases loaded in the seventh, CSI went quietly in the 8th before staging a comeback in the9th. Glennerster drove in Joe Palmeri, who led the inning off with a walk and was moved over after an infield error off of the bat of Kantzian. After a groundout that advanced base runners, Ciprello stroked a single to make it 7-5. That chased MC reliever Anthony LoFaro in favor of Julian Ponce, who was able to register a strikeout and lineup to preserve the win, leaving the game-tying run at first base.
MC out-hit CSI, 10-8. Palmeri and Glennerster each posted two hits for CSI. Kennedy would take the loss, tossing two innings, yielding four earned with a strikeout. Badia took the win after five innings of work, surrendering three runs (two earned) on five hits. Ponce earned the two-out save.
CSI will next take to the diamond on Sunday when they host SUNY-Maritime in a matinee twinbill at the CSI Baseball Complex, beginning at 12:00pm.