Staten Island, NY | In a doubleheader that meant a great deal in terms of playoff positioning, the College of Staten Island baseball team took a pair of huge wins against Lehman College this afternoon as part of CUNYAC play, sweeping the season series against the Lightning, and catapulting the Dolphins into second place in the standings. CSI won the opener, 15-6, before motoring through a 7-5 win in the second face-off. Coming into the recent four-game CUNYAC swing, CSI was sitting in fifth place in the standings, but with the recent four game tear, the team is 13-15 overall and 5-4 in CUNYAC play. With the pair of losses, Lehman fell to 7-19, 1-5, respectively.
GAME ONE – STATEN ISLAND 15, LEHMAN 6
The Dolphins kept their red-hot bats very much intact this afternoon starting with a 15-run, 25-hit outburst in the opener. Despite the lopsided win, CSI needed to stage a comeback in this one, falling behind, 3-0, before mounting the comeback and never looking back. Lehman got the party started with a three-run third inning off of starter John Esposito. Emmanuel Frias earned on base with a single and would come all the way around on a wild pitch and then sacrifice coupled with an error. A Jeremmy Santos RBI-single followed , and Anthony Riley would add another RBI-stroke to extend the lead.
In the seven-inning game, CSI did not have time to waste, and after stranding the bases loaded in the second inning against starter Rich Frommelt, they erupted for eight runs on nine hits in their turn of the third inning, aided along by a LC error as well. Andrew Nathan singled in Jett Nouvertne for CSI’s first run and then Domenick Castiglione would score via a wild pitch. Sean Becker followed with a double to score Nathan to tie the game, and then Nick Meola plated the go-ahead run on a base hit and from there, CSI never trailed again. Nouvertne would come up later in the inning and slam a two-RBI triple, his seventh triple of the year, to ultimately make-it 7-2 before Castiglione raced him in to end the inning at 8-3.
The Dolphins welcomed the insurance, and would plate four more runs in the fourth off of reliever Jonathan Rogers. Michael Ciancio ripped a monster shot to left field that would plate two runs, highlighting the inning. Lehman was able to scratch out a run in the fifth, but CSI kept the hit parade going by posting four more dingers in the fifth for two runs. Nick Falcone added a two-out base hit to score one run with another coming in via error.
Esposito ran into trouble in the sixth, as the Dolphins did yield a pair of runs, but the Dolphins were able to get one run back in the sixth before a scoreless seventh finalized the game at 15-6.
Esposito took the win, going five innings, surrendering six runs (four earned) with three walks and six strikeouts. Frommelt, who went 2.2 innings, allowing eight earned runs, took the loss. CSI saw both Castiglione and Meola finish 4-5 from the dish, with DiMarco adding three base hits as well. Every spot in the batting order had a hit for CSI, as the 25 hits they scattered in just the seven innings ranked tied for fourth-highest in CSI single-game history.
GAME TWO – STATEN ISLAND 7, LEHMAN 5
CSI again had to come back in order to win in game two, albeit falling behind just 1-0 before eventually taking a 6-2 lead that they would nurse to a win. CSI gave the ball to Salvatore Trancucci in the second outing, but he would hit a snag in the first as he plunked Santos. That was followed by a CSI error, and then an Anthony Riley hit, coupled with another CSI error gave the visitors a 1-0 edge. Trancucci was able to navigate out of the half inning, limiting the damage to just the lone run.
As they did in the first game, CSI responded immediately to take the lead. Against LC starter Ryan Ninivaggi, Falcone led off with a single, and then Nouvertne did the same. Castiglione continued his stellar play with a base-hit RBI to score Falcone to tie the game, which was followed by a Nathan single to plate Nouvertne to give CSI the 2-1 edge before Ninivaggi regrouped to retire the side. After a scoreless second, Lehman would come back to tie with a Riley double followed by a Fernando Polanco double to plate Riley for the 2-2 tie.
CSI, however, got their big inning again in the third. This time Nathan would triple knocking in Nouvertne and then he came in on a Meola double. DiMarco then laced a two-RBI double to make it a 6-2 game, taking better control. Lehman, however, refused to go away and gave Trancucci trouble by plating three runs in their turn of the fourth. Mark Vargas did the damage with one swing of the bat, launching a homer to left field, a three-run shot, to make it 6-5.
From there, however, the bats would go quiet as the relief pitching was stellar. CSI was able to plate an insurance tally in the fifth, chasing Ninivaggi, but reliever Rob Kiernan kept CSI at bay holding them scoreless for three outs in the fifth and another three outs in the sixth. After five innings of work, Trancucci’s day was done, and CSI turned the mound over to Kevin Ryan, who put in a two-inning save, allowing just a lone hit to preserve the enormous CSI win.
CSI would out-hit Lehamn in the second game 13-8, with Falcone and Nouvertne each tallying a trio of hits. Nathan went 2-4 with a pair of RBI and runs scored while Meola went 2-3 with two RBI as well.
The four-game win streak is the longest for CSI this season. The Dolphins will next be in action on Tuesday, when they face the College of Mount Saint Vincent at 4pm for a single game, on the road, in Riverdale, NY.
GAME VIDEO
