Staten Island, NY | After waiting an extra hour and a half to get underway this afternoon, the College of Staten Island softball team lost game one of their doubleheader to St. Joseph’s College – Brooklyn in disappointing fashion, 12-4. The Dolphins then took the field under increasingly steady rainfall for game two and fell behind 12-4 before staging a massive late-inning comeback to erase the eight-run deficit and earn a 13-12 victory when the game was called in the seventh inning due to a heavy downpour. The doubleheader split brought the Dolphins’ record to 13-15 while the Bears ended the day 15-18.
GAME ONE: ST. JOE’S 12, STATEN ISLAND 4 (6 INNINGS)
After the Dolphins jumped out to an early 4-0 lead against Bears starter Madison Erhardt, the Bears broke through against Alison Meagher for three runs in the fourth behind two base hits and a pair of Dolphins errors to make it 4-3. Those three runs in the fourth were the first of twelve unanswered runs by the Bears with the next nine, four of which came on a Nicole Quintana grand slam, coming against Vanessa Porto over the last two innings of the game as St. Joe’s went on to defeat CSI 12-4 in six innings.
The Dolphins struck first in the opening frame as Jaclyn Kateridge singled home Sierra Kaplanek, who previously doubled, with the game’s first run. The Bears then stranded a pair in the top of the second before the Dolphins added three more to their lead in the bottom half, two coming on a Julianna Cretella single and another on a Patricia Riches groundout, to make it 4-0. With one out in the inning and three runs already home, Erhardt was relieved by Jessica Mecham who closed the door on the inning and went on to shut down the Dolphins the rest of the way.
The Bears threatened once again in the third but failed to score following a single and a walk leaving two more on base. However, the Bears would finally crack into the run column in the fourth with an unearned run scored following a Dolphins error getting them on the board for the first time. St. Joe’s wasn’t done yet as a Quintana double down the right-field line plated one more before Quintana was chased home by a Gabriella Fielding RBI-single.
The score remained 4-3 entering the top of the fifth when Meagher was relieved by Porto for the Dolphins. After a walk and a single quickly put two on, a Gabriella Salvador sacrifice fly brought the tying run in to score evening things up at 4-4. After stranding two more on base in the fifth and failing to take the lead, the Bears erupted for eight in the sixth, two coming home on an Alexis Buchanan RBI-single, two more on a Gabriella Salvador base hit, and the last four on a grand slam by Quintana.
This sent the game into the bottom of the sixth with the Bears leading 12-4 and the Dolphins would go down in order to wrap up a game in which CSI saw an early four-run lead get away. Porto suffered the loss, her second, and Jessica Mecham earned the win in relief allowing only two hits over 4.2 innings of work. Quintana and Fielding each went 3-for-4 for the Bears with the pair accounting for six RBI’s and three runs scored. Not olphin had more than a single hit with Cretella accounting for two of the four CSI RBI’s and Riches and Kateridge adding one each.
GAME ONE: ST. JOE’S 12, STATEN ISLAND 13 (6 INNINGS – GAME CALLED DUE TO HEAVY RAIN)
After the second half of game one of their doubleheader vs St. Joe’s was played in a light drizzle, the Dolphins took the field under heavier, more consistent rainfall in the back end of the two-game set and defeated the Bears 13-12 in a 37-hit offensive extravaganza after the umpires and coaches agreed to end the game prematurely in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Bears ahead 15-13. Because the inning was not completed, the score reverted back to the score at the end of six, 13-12, and the Dolphins were awarded the victory. To get to that point the Dolphins had to erase an eight-run, 12-4, deficit and did so with nine unanswered runs, three in the fifth and six in the sixth. With their backs against the wall, it was Claudia Porcaro who kept the Dolphins alive with a three-run homer to make it 12-7 in the fifth before a five-run, six hit sixth inning capped off by an Antoinette Galbo two-RBI single put CSI ahead 13-12, the official final score.
After suffering the loss in game one, Porto got the start for the Dolphins in game two and quickly surrendered a first-inning run on a Victoria Mahoney triple followed by a Jessica Vento double. After Mahoney, the Bears starter, kept CSI off of the board in the first, the Bears gave her three more runs of support in the second. The three-hit inning, which saw three unearned runs come home to score as the result of a Dolphins error, put the Bears ahead 4-0 through two.
CSI responded in the bottom of the second to get back within one as Porcaro singled with one away to get things started before Alexa Venditti doubled her home with the first Dolphins run. Venditti scored following a Christina Cerverizzo single and throwing error to make it 4-2, and Galbo drove in Cerverizzo, who advanced to second on a throwing error following her RBI-single, to make it 4-3.
It was in the top of the third that the Bears broke the game wide open sending eleven batters to the plate and scoring six runs on ten base-hits to make it 10-3. The Dolphins added a run in the bottom half of the inning on a pair of doubles by Kaplanek and Samantha MacPherson to make it 10-4 before the Bears made it an eight-run lead with a two-spot in the next half inning, 12-4.
In the bottom half of the fifth, with the Dolphins needing at least one run to prolong the game, CSI began a spirited comeback that made for an instant classic on the diamond. With one out in the fifth and two on, Claudia Porcaro crushed a three-run shot over the left-center field wall to make it 12-7. The Bears would go down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth sending CSI right back to the plate trailing by five. It was in the bottom of the sixth, under heavy rainfall, that CSI would put together a rally that made for some of the season’s premiere highlights.
Three singles and a passed ball brought home the first Dolphins run before a hit batter loaded the bases for Venditti. A dropped pop up at first base brought in two more runs to score making it 12-10 and a Cerverizzo double plated one more to bring the Dolphins within one, 12-11. In the biggest at-bat of the game, it was CSI senior Antoinette Galbo driving in the tying and go-ahead runs with a single down the left field line scoring Cerverizzo and Venditti to complete the eight-run Dolphins comeback and give them the lead, 13-12.
The Bears would go in front 15-13 in the top of the seventh, but after the Dolphins had runners on second and third with nobody out in the final frame, the game was called due to the heavy rain with the score reverting back to the 13-12 tally at the end of the six. Porto was the winning pitcher for CSI and Jessica Mecham was the losing pitcher for the Bears. However, it was the hitting that ruled the day as three Bears, Mahoney, Brianna Baglino, and Jessica Mecham, and three Dolphins, Galbo, MacPherson, and Cerverizzo, had at least three hits. For CSI, it was Porcaro’s home run that kept the game alive and both she and Galbo drove in three runs.
The CSI softball team returns to action on Saturday for a big CUNYAC doubleheader against Lehman College and may be forced to do so without both Riches and Cretella, both of whom left today’s doubleheader with injuries. First pitch for game one is at 12 pm.
GAME VIDEO (GAME 1, FIRST 5 INNINGS OF GAME 2)
