GAME VIDEO – HIGHLIGHTS – The College of Staten Island baseball team homered four times on the evening, including three times in the second game of a doubleheader to help earn a doubleheader split against New Jersey City University in a twinbill played at the CSI Baseball Complex. NJCU took the opener, 10-8, in extra frames before the Dolphins rallied back for an emphatic 12-3 win in the second game. The split gives the Dolphins an 11-7-1 overall record, while the Gothic Knights are now 7-11 overall.
GAME ONE
In a wild game that featured 17 earned runs, 25 hits, five errors. 9 pitching changes, 14 walks, four hit batters, a catcher’s interference, a balk, and 24 runners left on base, the Gothic Knights outlasted CSI, 10-8, in the opener in 10 innings, clocking the game in at 3:31. In a wild first inning, NJCU got off to a 3-0 lead, highlighted by a Dan Berardi double that knocked in Mike Ramirez. Berardi later came in on a wild pitch, and Lenin Gomez added an RBI-groundout to the mix, all off of CSI starter Ryan Kennedy.
CSI answered back with four runs against NJCU starter Alexis Guerra. After Frank Sconzo singled and advanced on a wild pitch, Anthony DiMarco would plate him on another single. DiMarco would later score on a wild pitch himself, and after a Glenn Glennerster single, he would come around on a Sean Becker base hit. A Booby Drake RBI-single then scored Josh Mercado, making it 4-3 CSI.
NJCU responded right back with three more in the second inning, ending the day for Kennedy. Joe Coutinho plated a run via sac fly, and then the inning was extended on a catcher’s interference on Gomez’s at-bat on an otherwise fly ball that should have ended the inning. Instead, continuation led to two more runs as Bill Feehan added an RBI hit, making it 6-4 Knights.
NJCU added another digit in the third off of reliever Terrance Mulligan via sac fly, but CSI got it back when Glennerster led off the bottom half of the third with a towering homerun to left field to make it, 7-4. The Dolphins got a little closer in the fifth with a run against NJCU reliever John Casella thanks to a Jett Nouvertne hit that plated Bobby Drake, who earned on via a one-out double. In the sixth, NJCU again added one, this time against reliever Juan Rodriguez via a throwing error when CSI tried to turn a double play, but again CSI was able to get the run back when after a Nick Meola walk, Glennerster doubled. The pair then advanced a base with Meola scoring on a wild pitch making it 8-7. CSI would proceed to load the bases, but NJCU reliever Sean Gibney came in with no one out and induced a strike out and two straight harmless pop-outs to end the threat.
In the seventh, CSI reliever Jason Failla held the Knights in check and when it came time for the Dolphins to bat, CSI delivered as Frank Muzzio stroked a two-out hit to score Frank Sconzo in from second base, forcing extra frames. The relievers were solid from there as Failla traded innings with Gibney, and later, Nick LoGatto. In the 10th, however, Nick Ruscingno led off with a single, and after CSI registered two outs, Failla made the mistake of leaving a ball up in the zone to Berardi, who crushed a ball to left field that cleared the wall and gave NJCU the 10-8.
That proved enough for LoGatto, as with momentum, he was able to retire the heart of the Dolphins order 1-2-3 to earn the win in relief.
NJCU out-hit CSI, 13-12, with Berardi serving as hero, as he went 4-6 with three RBI and three runs scored. Zach Buchholz went 3-5 as well. LoGatto got the win with 2.2 innings of relief, allowing no runs or hits. Failla got the loss, tossing 3.2 innings of relief, allowing two runs on three hits while fanning three. Glennerster finished 3-5 with one RBI and two runs scored.
GAME TWO
The Dolphins kept the hitting parade going in the second game, but they were fueled by a great outing from Christian Capellan, who tossed six strong innings, fanning six. After Capellan struck out the side in the first and another in the second, CSI got two runs in the second. Like he did in game one, Glennerster started in off with a homerun to left field, opening it up at 1-0. After a Mercado double and an infield hit, Drake offered a sac bunt RBI to score Mercado and make it 2-0. NJCU starter Ricky Lorenzo wiggles out of the jam, but CSI would cut into him again in the third inning.
In the third the Dolphins would plate five runs all with two outs. Muzzio started with a single, then Glennerster walked. Mercado followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0. That brought up Drake, who down in the count worked back into the at-bat, then got a pitch he jumped on, towering a shot to left field that cleared the park for a three-run homer, the first of his career. Three more singles would bring in Anthony Lozada to complete the inning with CSI nursing a 7-0 lead.
Capellan hit a snag in the fourth frame, as NJCU pushed across two runs, with Berardi lacing an RBI double, later scoring himself on a Feehan sac fly. CSI got the runs back, however, in the fourth against NJCU reliever Mike Albuina. Meola started with a double, and he would later come around to score on a Mercado ground ball out. Lozada later in the inning would plate Muzzio on a sac fly.
After NJCU scored a run in the fifth to make it 9-3, CSI put a punctuation mark on the event when Nick Meola joined the home run party with a three-run shot to left-center, plating Sconzo who singled against reliever Brian Costello and DiMarco who was plunked. In a non-save opportunity, CSI reliever Dan Newman retired the Gothic Knights in order to complete the win.
CSI out-hit NJCU in the second game, 13-5, led by two hits each from Sconzo, Meola, Glennerster, Mercado and Lozada. Capellan got his first win since March 5, going six frames, allowing three runs, two earned, with one walk and six strikeouts. Lorenzo took the loss, tossing just three innings, allowing seven earned runs on 9 hits.
The Dolphins will be back in action tomorrow, when they host Ramapo College for a single, non-conference, contest at 4pm at the CSI Baseball Complex.
