Baseball Opens Season with a Split

Patchogue, NY| The St. Joseph's College baseball team picked up a split against Ithaca College Sunday afternoon at Gregg Alfano Field. The Golden Eagles dropped game one 4-3 before coming back to win game two 4-1.

SJC opens the season at 1-1 and the Bombers move to 4-2 overall.

Game One

The Golden Eagles were on the board early courtesy of a solo shot to right off the bat of junior Paul Britt in the bottom of the second. An inning later, senior Tyler Crafa singled to right and stole second moving into scoring position with one out. Junior Tyler Costa beat out an infield hit and an errant throw put him on second while scoring Crafa. Senior Matthew Burnett knocked in Costa but was thrown out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple.

The Bombers inched to within one, 3-2, with two runs in the top of the fourth. A one-out single by Sam Little followed by four consecutive walks produced Ithaca's first run of the afternoon. SJC starter Nick Clemente got Jack Lynch to strike out swinging with the bases loaded but hit Cam Fuoti with a pitch forcing Andrew Baily home for the inning's second run.

Ithaca tacked on two more in the top half of the fifth.  A one-out single and a walk put runners on first and second before a wild pitch moved them up 90 feet. Relief pitcher Joseph Murphy got Garrett Callaghan swinging for the second out before hitting Matt Carey to load the bases. Jake Generali followed with a single down the leftfield line bringing in Little and Adam Gallagher for a 4-3 advantage.

The Golden Eagles had runners on base in the bottom of the fifth and sixth but were unable to push any runs across. In the bottom of the seventh, Crafa singled through the right side and stole second to move into scoring position with two outs. Costa sent a softly hit ground ball toward second and Ithaca second baseman Generali caught Crafa straying too far off third for the final out of the game.

Costa and Crafa both finished 2 for 3 with a run scored for the Golden Eagles. Murphy was credited with the loss allowing two runs on five hits in 3.1 innings of relief. Clemente surrendered two runs on just one hit in his 3.2 innings of work.

Game Two

Three runs in the bottom of the second inning had the Golden Eagles leading early in the game two. Burnett singled through the right side and back-to-back walks to sophomore Tyler Sanderson and junior Anthony Raucci loaded the bases with one out. A wild pitch plated Burnett before an RBI groundout from Crafa brought home Sanderson. The second wild pitch of the inning sent home Raucci moving the score to 3-0.

The Bombers got one back in the top half of the third when Garrett Snyder singed in Fuoti who doubled to left to start the inning.

SJC added some insurance with a run in the fifth and held the Ithaca scoreless in the sixth and seventh for the 4-1 win.

Burnett led the Golden Eagles at the plate going 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. Sanderson and Crafa were responsible for SJC's other two hits in the game.

Senior PJ Martino earned the win allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts in four innings. Junior Anthony Papa picked up the save providing three scoreless innings with four Ks.

The Golden Eagles return to action when they travel to Auburndale, Fla. to take part in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational and face Clark University on Wednesday, March 7.