Offense Explodes to Finish Weekend in Second Place

Patchogue, N.Y. – St. Joseph's College baseball team (18-14, Skyline 12-2) finished the weekend 3-1 against conference opponents Old Westbury (23-9, Skyline 10-4) and Mount Saint Mary (17-15, Skyline 8-6). The Golden Eagles currently sit one game behind the first place Farmingdale Rams and two games ahead of third place Old Westbury.  SJC and Farmingdale will face each other this Saturday at Farmingdale State.

Senior second baseman Dennis Nover (Fresh Meadows, N.Y. / St. Francis Prep) stole four bases against Mount Saint Mary to raise his season total, to a team leading, 35, which is also a St. Joseph's program record.   The previous mark of 33 was set by Mike Ringle in 2003.

On Saturday, the Golden Eagles spilt the doubleheader with the Panthers of Old Westbury. The first game featured a match-up of great pitchers with the Eagles putting ace Jason Dierkes (Mount Sinai, N.Y. / Mount Sinai) on the mound to face Tim Walsh of the Panthers. Dierkes pitched a complete game going eight innings while allowing four runs. St. Joseph's struggled to score with their only run coming from a one-out single by centerfielder Brian Hannigan (West Babylon, N.Y. / St. John the Baptist) in the top of the third. Old Westbury scored three in the third and held on for the 4-1 victory. 

In the second game of doubleheader, the Eagles' offense came alive to outscore Old Westbury 10-6  with eight different players contributing RBI's. After Old Westbury scored four runs in the fifth, St. Joseph's came back in the top of the sixth to score four of their own to give them an 8-6 lead. In the sixth, with the bases loaded and two outs, freshman Alex Ras (Merrick, N.Y. / Calhoun) drove in two runs on a pinch-hit single through the left side. After Ras's clutch hit, leftfielder Anthony Delury (East Rockaway, N.Y. / East Rockaway) singled up the middle to ga\ive the Eagles another insurance run. Delury would finish the game 3-for-5. Sophomore Jonathan Beekman (Longwood, N.Y. / Ridge) gave another strong performance in relief for St. Joseph's to earn his first win of the season.

The next day, the Eagles kept the runs coming, by outscoring the Knights 23-10 in the doubleheader. In the first game, SJC scored 12 runs in the first three innings. They were led by the hot hitting of Delury, Rich Pecoraro (Hampton Bays, N.Y. / Hampton Bays), and Jim Carey (Patchogue, N.Y. / St. John the Baptist), all three combined for seven hits, six runs, and nine rbi's. The Eagles scored seven in the third to give them a commanding 12-1 lead off a two-run double by Carey and a two-run single by Pecoraro. Starter Mike Napoli (Riverhead, N.Y. / Shoreham Wading-River) went five innings to earn the win and freshman Steve Szobesky (Seaford, N.Y. / Seaford) pitched three effective innings in relief to get the save in the 12-4 victory.

The hot hitting of the Golden Eagles continued in the second game as they jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the second off two-run singles by Nover and Pecoraro. They would tack on four more in the third, with Pecoraro driving in two more on a single to right field, to boost the lead to 9-1. The senior first baseman finished the day 6-for-7 and with 10 RBI. Robert Hyde (West Babylon, N.Y. / West Babylon) pitched four innings in relief to earn his third victory on the year as the Eagles cruised to a 11-6 win.

Next up for St. Joseph's is a non-conference game against New Paltz (17-14) on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.