It took over six and a half hours, but the College of Staten Island men’s baseball team earned a split with visiting St. Joseph’s College of Brooklyn, in a non-conference doubleheader played at the CSI Baseball Complex this evening. St. Joseph’s outlasted the Dolphins in a marathon, 5-4, 12 inning, victory in game one, while the Dolphins smashed their way to a 9-1 win in the nightcap. CSI improved to 20-8 overall, while the Bears lifted their mark to 7-16.
In an exciting opener, both teams traded shots and stayed even nearly the entire way. St. Joseph’s got on the board first, tacking a second inning run off of CSI starter Richard Anderson off of an Anthony Longone single, scoring Chris Davidson. Anderson was able to work out of the jam to end the inning. Meanwhile, CSI wasted no time getting the equalizer, as a Matt Oetting sac fly brought in Cory Sullivan, who led off the inning and stole both second and third base off of Bears starter Danny Contant.
The Dolphins then took the lead in the fourth inning when a bases-loaded walk was issued to CSI’s Henry Roman, scoring Mark Glennerster. With a chance to open up the lead, however, Contant settled to force Pat Gale into a harmless flyout and Tom DiPietro to strike out looking, leaving three runners on base.
St. Joe’s took advantage in the sixth inning, getting the tying run on a sac fly by Davidson, who scored Kevin Diaz, who had started the inning with a walk. Contant went the full seven innings for the Bears while Anderson was replaced by Nick Tingos for the Dolphins as the game moved into extra frames. In wasn’t until the 10th inning when the offense rolled back in.
With Tingos still on the mound, St. Joe’s plated two runs in their half, as a Diaz triple scored two runs. Tingos was able to hold Diaz at third though to escape the top half of the 10th down by two, 4-2.
In CSI’s turn at-bat against Bears reliever Paul Piccirillo, the Dolphins delivered. With two outs, Devon DiCasoli singled, and was advanced to second base when Thomas DeWaters hit another. Gale then stepped into the box, and stroked another single through the middle, scoring DiCasoli. DiPietro then legged out an infield single to third and the ensuing throwing error led DeWaters to race home, tying the score. With Gale at third base, Piccirillo got Joe Cassano to fly out to escape the inning still tied.
That’s the way it stayed until the 12th inning, when the Bears struck for the final, game-winning, time. Against reliever Joe Jacobson, Diaz started the inning off with a walk, and after stealing second advanced to third on the throwing error to catch him stealing. After a groundout, Jacobson was lifted for Paul Ciccazzo. Alvaro Quinones was the next hitter and his ground ball to second base was enough to score Diaz, as he beat the throw home to give the Bears the lead.
With three more outs to go, Piccirillo earned the win, getting the Dolphins down in order after giving up a leadoff hit to DeWaters.
CSI out-hit St. Joe’s 15-10 in the opener, but left 19 runners on base to the Bears’ 10.
Jacobson took the loss for the Dolphins, while Piccirillo earned the win for St. Joseph’s.
Despite the intense and exciting game one, the second contest did not fit the same bill, as the Dolphins led big from start-to-finish in the lop-sided 9-1 win. The win was aided by a sensational pitching performance from CSI starter James Mardikos, who bounced back after a couple of tough starts to throw an even six innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits, fanning five.
Meanwhile, CSI got all the offense it needed in the first inning, taking a commanding 4-0 lead. RBI singles by DiPietro and Glennerster paced the inning while Cory Sullivan added a sac fly. Another run came in on a Bears error, one of three by the visitors in the nightcap.
CSI scored another run in the fourth when Gale came in on a passed ball, and in the fifth, CSI put the game completely out of reach by scoring another four runs. This time a Gale bases-clearing triple plated two runs to highlight the stanza.
St. Joe’s only threatened in the seventh, when back-to-back walks issued by Mardikos lifted him for reliever Anthony Collucci. He then got Diaz to ground into a double play. Joe Geloso then scored from third base on a wild pitch, but that was the extent of the scoring as Davidson flied out to end the inning.
Gale and Glennerster had two hits each for the Dolphins, while Diaz posted the only multi-hit game for the Bears with two of his own. Mardikos got the win while St. Joe’s starter Chris Coffey took the loss, going 4.1 innings, giving up six runs (three earned) on seven hits.
CSI will return to action on Saturday when they resume CUNYAC play with a double against City College of New York beginning at 12 Noon at the CSI Baseball Complex.