Men's Baseball Drops Two To Lasell in Home Opener

(BROOKLYN, NY)  The St. Joseph's College men's baseball team opened their sophomore season with 11-8 and 12-5 losses to Lasell, another young Division III baseball program, at Old Boys High School on Sunday afternoon.  Despite the final scores, the Bears held the lead in both games, but costly errors helped give the advantage to the Lasers.  For the two games, St. Joseph's committed eight errors, while Lasell remained flawless.  Chris Davidson (San Carlos, CA/Canada College) led the Bears going 6-for-7 with three RBI's and three runs scored.

In the opener, St. Joseph's jumped to an early 1-0 lead scoring in the bottom half of the first on a Davidson single that scored leadoff hitter A.J. Passione (Brooklyn, NY/Xavarian).  Lasell took the lead scoring two runs in the top of the third, but the Bears tied the game in the bottom half of the frame with Passione singling to the right side and stealing second and scoring on a single by Joseph Boccia (Westwood, NJ/Westwood).

Davidson, who started the game on the mound, was relieved after the fourth inning, and the middle relief was unable to keep the game close, giving up nine runs in the fifth and sixth innings seemingly putting the game out of reach, at 11-2.  St. Joseph's staged a late rally in the bottom seventh with big hits from Davidson and Mario Noriega(Los Angeles, CA/South Pasadena) with the bases loaded scoring three of the Bears six runs in the inning.  The Bears sent the potential tying run to the plate with two runners on and two outs, but a grounder back to the mound closed the game out 11-8.

In the second game, St. Joseph's gave up three runs in the top second on two errors and in the fourth inning a Junior Veija home run off starter Keith Juricich(San Mateo, CA/Canada College) gave Lasell a 4-1 lead.  Juricich pitched five innings giving up three earned runs in the no-decision.  In the St. Joseph's fifth, Davidson drew a bases loaded walk and Noriega followed with a two RBI single up the middle to start a four run St. Joseph's inning that gave them the their first lead of the game 5-4.

Chris Coffey (Brooklyn, NY/Kingsborough CC) took the mound in relief in the top sixth and retired the first two batters swinging.  Coffey hit the nine-hitter Brian McQuinn bringing up the top of the lineup.  Coffey appeared to have McQuinn frozen with a pickoff attempt at first, but a dropped throw by Anthony Langone(Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) kept the inning alive, which proved to be costly as Lasell scored four runs with two outs to take a 8-5 lead.  Lasell added four more insurance runs in the seventh and the Bears could only manage two runners in the final two innings for the 12-5 loss.  Coffey pitched 0.2 innings giving up four runs, all unearned, and was credited with the loss.

Davidson slugged .857 and also stole two.  Noriega had a team-high four RBI's over the doubleheader and batted 3-for-7 (.429), scoring one run.  Passione also batted 3-for-7 in the leadoff, scoring two and stealing two.  Jacob Ramos (Hasbrouch Heights, NJ/Hasbrouch) and Joseph Boccia each went 2-for-6 and scoring two.

Patrick Girard led Lasell going 5-for-9 (.556), with one triple, batting in three and scoring four.  Carl Lentini went 3-for-8 (.375) with three RBIs and three runs scored.  Josh Sullivan picked up the win in game 1, going 5.0 innings, striking out six and giving up two runs.  Matt Mahoney received the win in game 2 in relief going 2.2 innings, giving up no runs, and striking out six.

St. Joseph's returns to action on the road against John Jay College on Friday, March 13.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at American Legion Baseball Complex.