Farmingdale, NY | Coming off a disappointing loss to John Jay in the front half of a doubleheader cut short by rain on Monday, the Dolphins earned a split of their Tuesday afternoon doubleheader on the road at Farmingdale State winning the first game 4-2 and dropping the back end of the two-game set in ten innings, 2-1. CSI will return home for Wednesday’s makeup game vs John Jay with a record of 11-13 overall while the Rams finish the day 16-14.
GAME ONE: STATEN ISLAND 4, FARMINGDALE 2
The Rams opened the scoring in the bottom of the first against Alison Meagher with three straight one-out singles to go ahead 1-0. The Dolphins then seized a 4-1 advantage come the third in an inning which saw them pick up four base hits, the loudest of which was Sierra Kaplanek’s fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot. The Rams would battle back with a sixth-inning run to make it 4-2 but would strand the tying runs on base before going down 1-2-3 in the seventh to wrap up a 4-2 Dolphins victory.
After three one-out singles gave the Rams an early first-inning lead against Alison Meagher and the Dolphins, CSI would take control of the game in the third inning. Julianna Cretella got things started with a one-out single which was followed by another single off the bat of Patricia Riches to put two on with one away. Antoinette Galbo tied the game with an RBI-single to chase home Cretella with the first Dolphins run before CSI took the lead for good on a three-run homer by Sierra Kaplanek, her fourth round-tripper of the season.
After stranding a pair in the second and one more in the third, Meagher settled in for the Dolphins in the circle and set the Rams down in order in both the fourth and fifth innings. It was in the sixth that she ran into trouble as Farmingdale State would pull to within two on a Julia Walpole sacrifice fly and get the tying runs on base following a two-out walk of Kimberly Basile. The tying run would promptly move into scoring position on a wild pitch with Aleysha Midgett at the plate for the Rams. However, Meagher would induce a pop-up to shortstop ending the threat and maintaining a 4-2 CSI lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Rams were unable to bring the tying run to the plate as they went down in order during their final turn at-bat dropping game one by a pair, 4-2. Meagher shook off a rough start to pick up her sixth win of the season allowing two runs on six hits through her seven innings of work. Jaxie Collard, who fell to 6-7, suffered the defeat for the Rams in a start which saw her last five innings while allowing four runs on five base hits. Kaplanek and Galbo accounted for all of the Dolphins RBI’s while Patricia Riches added another multi-hit game for the Dolphins as well. For the Rams, it was only Jessica Lombardo who collected multiple hits and she also drove in a run.
GAME TWO: STATEN ISLAND 1, FARMINGDALE 2
In a game which did not see any scoring through the first seven, Farmingdale State salvaged a split of the doubleheader from CSI with a 2-1 victory in ten innings. It was the Dolphins taking the first lead of the game in the top of the eighth on a Riches RBI-single, but the Rams responded by evening the score in the bottom half. Things came to a close quickly in the bottom of the tenth with the score still even at one as Sierra Cardenales chased home the game-winning run from second on the inning’s second pitch to give the Rams the win, 2-1.
The two teams combined for three hits through the first four innings as Alison Meagher and Madeleine Smith exchanged zeros in the circle for both sides. It wasn’t until the fifth that either team would stage a significant scoring threat as the Dolphins put two on base as the result of an error and a one-out single. A second error coming on the single would allow the lead runner, Samantha MacPherson, who previously reached on an error, to advance to third. This left the Dolphins with two opportunities to take the lead, but Erica Olsen and Cretella both failed to hit the ball out of the infield and were retired to close out the inning scoreless.
The two teams would combine for three more hits through the end of the seventh with neither side moving a runner into scoring position during that time. Getting the first crack at breaking into the run column in extras with the international tiebreaker rule in effect was CSI and they took advantage. After the first two outs were recorded quickly, Patricia Riches broke the scoreless tie with an RBI-single to give CSI the 1-0 lead.
In the next half inning, a sacrifice bunt moved the tying run to third before a Walpole sacrifice fly brought the tying run in to score. This sent the game into the ninth tied at one, but neither team was able to score their second run in the inning. CSI went down 1-2-3 in the top of the tenth, but the bottom half of the inning would come to a close even more quickly as Cardenales immediately singled to left field on an 0-1 pitch to bring home the winning run.
Meagher, who pitched 16 innings plus on the day, suffered the loss while Smith earned her sixth victory with a ten-inning effort. Riches had three of the five Dolphins hits and drove in the lone CSI run. Though CSI outhit the Rams, 5-4 it was the timely hitting of the Rams in extra frames that earned them the 2-1 victory.
Softball returns right back to the diamond tomorrow to make up the back half of Monday’s doubleheader against John Jay which was postponed due to rain. CSI will be the road team in the game played on their own home turf with first pitch from the CSI Softball Complex scheduled for 1:00 pm.
