Staten Island, NY | After John Jay dealt them a 4-3 defeat on Monday in their first meeting of the season, the Dolphins took the field for the rescheduled second game of Monday’s doubleheader this afternoon and defeated the Bloodhounds 7-4. The CSI victory earns them a split of the season series against John Jay and improves them to 12-14 overall on the season, 8-2 in the CUNYAC. The loss drops John Jay to 11-15 overall and moves them one game behind the Dolphins in the loss column with a 5-3 mark in the CUNYAC.
The Dolphins got on the board with a second-inning run coming on a Claudia Porcaro RBI single and took an early one-run lead that they would never relinquish. Ahead 1-0, the Dolphins added four more in the fourth to go ahead by five with Alison Meagher cruising in the circle. Trailing 5-0, the Bloodhounds scored one in the sixth, but two CSI insurance runs in the seventh gave the Dolphins a 7-1 lead that was too much for John Jay to overcome in the final frame as they put together a rally that fell three runs short in a 7-4 defeat.
After the Dolphins went down in order to open the game, John Jay greeted Meagher in the circle with consecutive base hits, a long double and a single, to put runners on second and third with nobody out. With Mariela Guzman at the plate, Jessica Barbaria, who previously singled, attempted to steal second. She arrived safely, but Tommi Mandell, who doubled to lead things off, strayed too far from third base and was thrown out by Patricia Riches as she tried to slide back into the bag. This derailed the Bloodhounds first inning and they ultimately failed to score.
In the next half inning, CSI would take the lead following a leadoff single by Jaclyn Kateridge and an RBI-single by Claudio Porcaro to chase Kateridge home with the first run of the game. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth when the Dolphins put together a four-run rally made up of three base hits, a walk, and a pair of John Jay errors. The scoring was highlighted by a Claudia Porcaro RBI-double and an Antoinette Galbo RBI-single to put CSI ahead by five.
Trailing 5-0 entering the bottom of the fourth, the Bloodhounds once again victimized themselves with another poor baserunning decision. After a walk put the leadoff batter on, AnneMarie Rivera attempted to advance to third ahead of Ashley Sclafani who reached on a throwing error. After the ball sailed into shallow right field, Rivera headed for third but was gunned down on a strike from Julianna Cretella in right field. The blunder on the base paths once again took the steam out of the inning for John Jay and they were turned aside in the fourth.
The score remained 5-0 until the bottom of the sixth when the Bloodhounds plated their first run of the game on a Nicole Lopez RBI-single which was part of a three-hit inning that saw John Jay strand the bases loaded. After seeing a golden opportunity to get back in the game pass them by in the sixth, the Bloodhounds saw their deficit grow to six runs in the top of the seventh on a pair of unearned CSI runs. Two errors in the inning increased the John Jay total to four and sent the game into the final half inning with a score of 7-1.
As Meagher’s pitch count climbed well over 100 in the final frame, she labored through the seventh allowing a single, issuing a walk, and surrendering a two-run double off the bat of Rivera to make it 7-3. However, the Bloodhounds weren’t done yet as an Inelza Salcedo single put two runners on. This set up a Meagher strikeout of Nicole Lopez, but the ball traveled all the way to the backstop allowing Lopez to reach and the fourth Bloodhounds run to score. This brought the tying run to the plate with two away, but the Bloodhounds rally would end here as Brianna Schmidt grounded out back to Meagher to end the game, a 7-4 Dolphins victory.
Meagher earned her seventh victory for the Dolphins with another complete-game effort and Rivera suffered the loss after working four innings in an outing cut short when she suffered a minor cut on her face sliding into home plate. Kateridge had a pair of hits and two runs scorde in the game for CSI while Porcaro was 3-for-4 with two RBI’s and a run scored. For the Bloodhounds, Jessica Barbaria and Inelza Salcedo each had two hits with AnneMarie Rivera driving in two of the four John Jay runs.
The Dolphins are right back at it tomorrow with a non-conference doubleheader against St Joseph’s Brooklyn at the CSI Softball Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm.
