Staten Island, NY | The Dolphins were afforded two opportunities to avenge a 10-9 loss to St. Joseph’s Brooklyn earlier this season, but the Dolphins came up short in both games of today’s non-conference doubleheader, dropping the early game 6-1 and the back-end of the two-game set, 6-2. The victories earned the Bears a three-game season series sweep of CSI and improved St. Joe’s to 13-17-1 on the season. The pair of defeats makes it four straight losses for the Dolphins and dropped CSI to 13-19.
GAME ONE: ST. JOE’S 6, STATEN ISLAND 1
The Bears struck for two first-inning runs in game one and never relinquished their lead on the way to a 6-1 victory in the early game of the doubleheader. Trailing 2-0, the Dolphins scratched out a run in the second to cut the lead in half, but the Bears went on to score four unanswered runs the rest of the way en route to the five-run win.
John Esposito got the start for the Dolphins and surrendered two early runs due in large part to a pair of Dolphins throwing errors, one by Michael Ciancio at shortstop and another by Jett Nouvertne at second base. The first of the two errors allowed Adam Schwartz to reach first base on a routine ground ball while the second allowed Schwartz to score from third while the Dolphins had Anthony Palermo caught in a rundown between first and second base. A Michael Ryan RBI-single capped off the inning for the Bears giving them the two run lead.
The score remained 2-0 entering the bottom of the second when the Dolphins got onto the scoreboard for the first time thanks to another error, this one committed by the Bears. A one-out walk of Anthony DiMarco got things started before Vincent Brennan laced a 3-2 pitch up the middle to put runners on the corners with one away. Joseph Manzi would reach on a fielding error which allowed DiMarco to score and Brennan to reach second base safely. With two on and still only one out, St. Joe’s starter Andrew Watters would pick up back-to-back strikeouts of Ciancio and Nick Falcone to end the Dolphins threat.
The Dolphins would fall victim to yet another unearned run in the third as Adam Schwartz drew a leadoff walk and advanced from first to third as the result of an errant pickoff attempt by Esposito. Anthony Palermo immediately capitalized on the miscue with an RBI-single to put the Bears back in front by two, 3-1. The Bears would add one more in the fifth against reliever Christian Capellan on some small-ball as a Chris Zinser single and Kevin Reyes sacrifice bunt set up an Adam Schwartz RBI-single to put the Bears in front 4-1.
CSI remained quiet at the plate until the bottom of the fifth when they let their best opportunity of the game pass them by. Ciancio led things off with a long double into right field that he attempted to extend into a triple. However, the decision to take the turn and head for third proved costly as Ciancio was gunned down by a considerable margin on a strike from right fielder Joseph Langan. From there, three of the next four Dolphins hitters drew walks to load the bases with two outs for Nicholas Meola. In the biggest at-bat of the game, it was Watters who won the battle against the Dolphins slugger striking Meola out to bring an end to another Dolphins scoring threat.
After a scoreless sixth, Capellan was hit hard in the seventh, surrendering two runs on three base hits including a ball hit by Schwartz that clanked off the top of the left field wall. When the smoke cleared on the top of the seventh, the Dolphins found themselves behind 6-1 entering their final turn at bat. Ciancio walked to lead off the bottom half of the seventh but was erased on a fielder’s choice before Nouvertne lined into a double play to end the game with a final of 6-1.
Esposito was a tough-luck loser once again as he allowed only a single earned run in four innings of work. Watters pitched a 119-pitch complete game to earn his fifth win of the season. For the Bears Schwartz was on base three times with two base-hits and a walk to go along with two RBI’s and three runs scored. Palermo also reached three times in the same fashion and had two RBI’s and a run scored of his own. CSI only mustered three hits in the game with those belonging to Domenick Castiglione, Brennan, and Ciancio.
GAME TWO: ST. JOE’S 6, STATEN ISLAND 2
The Dolphins didn’t fare any better in the back end of the doubleheader dropping game two in a very similar fashion to the way they fell in game one by a final score of 6-2. Once again the Bears got ahead 2-0 early, but this time the Dolphins battled back to tie the score at two. However, the Bears once again closed the game by scoring four unanswered runs behind another complete-game effort on the mound to make it a perfect 3-0 vs CSI this year.
St. Joe’s once again jumped out to a two-run first inning lead at the start of game two, this time behind a Palermo RBI-double and another Dolphins error. Trailing 2-0- before their first turn at bat, CSI responded quickly with a first-inning run of their own following an Anthony DiMarco double and wild pitch which brought him in to score from third.
The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the third when the Dolphins loaded the bases on a pair of walks and a Bears error, all coming with nobody out. With the bases juiced, Castiglione singled sharply to left center to bring home the second Dolphins run which evened the score at two. However, this was all CSI would get as Andrew Nathan grounded into a fielder’s choice, Nouvertne struck out, and Sean Becker flew out to right field.
Dolphins starter Salvatore Trancucci IV cruised through the second, third, and fourth on the mound before being removed in favor of Kevin Ryan in the fifth. Ryan made quick work of the Bears in the fifth but ran into major trouble with two outs in the sixth. A Palermo double led things off, but he was on the verge of being stranded at third with two away. Instead, it was the pitcher/designated hitter William DeLuca driving in the go-ahead run to make it 3-2. St. Joe’s went on to add another pair in the inning following a walk, a double, and another single to make it 5-2, a deficit CSI would never recover from.
The Bears added an insurance run in the seventh to make it 6-2 and sent DeLuca back to the mound looking for the complete game in the bottom half of the final frame. He set the Dolphins down 1-2-3 and for the second time in as many games, the Bears starter went the distance to secure a St. Joe’s victory in a game which saw the Dolphins struggling for offense with only four hits.
Kevin Ryan, who entered in a tie game, suffered the loss while DeLuca earned the complete game victory. Schwartz and Palermo each scored two runs and Palermo added another pair of base hits and an RBI. Chris Zinser also added two base knocks for the Bears while not a single Dolphins had multiple hits in the game.
The Dolphins next game is four days away as they host Grace Hillery Breast Cancer Awareness Night this Tuesday at 7:00 pm when the Dolphins will take on another non-conference opponent in Drew University.
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