The College of Staten Island baseball team is finalizing the CUNYAC portion of its schedule this afternoon and with that, the CUNYAC Regular Season Championship will be on the line as they will take on Baruch College for a doubleheader. The Dolphins will be the visiting team on its home field today, as this double was originally scheduled to be played at MCU Ballpark in Brooklyn, NY. With that, CSI will be honoring its seven seniors this afternoon: Joe Palmeri, Phil Ciprello, Greg Manassa, Nick Delprete, Francis Munoz, George Kantzian, and Brian Pasquale.
CSI vs. BARUCH COLLEGE AT-A-GLANCE
Matchup: CSI (22-12 Overall, 6-0 CUNYAC) vs. Baruch College (11-15 Overall, 5-1 CUNYAC)
Where: CSI Baseball Complex – 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY
First Pitch: 12:00pm
Live Video: http://www.csidolphins.com/CSISportsNet
All-Time Series: CSI leads 77-19
Last Year’s Result: CSI won 3 out of 5 meetings
Players to Watch (CSI): Nick Delprete continues to lead CSI with a .387 batting average, while fellow seniors Joe Palmeri and George Kantzian are not too far behind. Palmeri sits at .354, leading the way with 36 runs scored and 32 RBI. Kantzian is at .320 and is still two doubles shy of the school’s all-time single season record of 19. Glenn Glennerster has also been red-hot of late, lifting his average up to .330. Tom Musso and Christian Capellan both have four wins on the mound this season and are expected starters this afternoon.
Players to Watch (BC): The Bearcats have three every day starters boasting over a .300 average, led by Jasdeep Buttar’s robust .365 mark with a team leading 31 hits and 19 RBI. Luca Altamirano follows at .319 and paces the Bearcats with 21 runs scored. Baruch has the strong arm of Cameron Kitt to guide them. He is 4-2 this season with a 2.01 ERA with 40.1 innings of work under his belt. Ryan Warner and Matthew Fazio are Baruch’s other major starters who have logged six starts each. They share four wins and 69.2 innings between them.
News and Notes: Today’s doubleheader carries with it the CUNYAC Regular Season title and the No. 1 seed in the CUNYAC Tournament along with it. The scenario is simple enough. A split or a CSI sweep will give CSI the title, while Baruch will need a doubleheader sweep this afternoon. CSI is unblemished this year in the CUNYAC while Baruch sits at 5-1, having fallen once to John Jay College way back on April 5. Since then the Bearcats have won their last four CUNYAC games by a combined 18 runs. These two teams met five times last year, twice during the regular season (a series split) and three more times during the postseason where CSI was able to take two of three and with it, the CUNYAC Tournament Championship. The final game was a classic that featured a grand-slam game-tying homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning by Kantzian, followed by a four-run 12th inning that gave CSI a 10-9 win. In the record watch department, CSI’s Joe Palmeri is four hits shy of 4th all-time at the College, as he sits with 166 for his career.