Harten’s Walk Off Homer Lifts Bears Over John Jay

STATEN ISLAND, NY – Sophomore Joe Harten (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) hit a one-out, three-run, walk-off home run over the left field wall in the bottom of the ninth leading the St. Joseph's College baseball team to their first victory of the season, defeating John Jay 14-13 at New Dorp High School on Thursday afternoon.

The see-saw battle had six lead changes and St. Joseph's rallied from a six-run deficit in the fifth inning.

After a slow start striking out in his first two at bats, Harten finished 2-for-4 with four RBI, two runs scored, a walk and a sacrifice.  Chris Davidson (San Carlos, CA/Carlmont) went 4-for-5 with two runs scored, a double and a stolen base.  Joseph Boccia (Westwood, NJ/Westwood) hit 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in one.  Jon Mendez (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) and Anthony Langone (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) each had two hits and two runs, with Mendez driving in three and Langone one.

Mykelle Cortez (Brooklyn, NY/Cobble Hill) earned the victory on the mound, improving to 1-0, tossing 5.1 innings in relief, giving up seven runs (two unearned), striking out four and walking only one.

Nick Catalano (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) led John Jay going 4-for-5, scoring three runs and a stolen base.  Edwin Hernandez (Brooklyn, NY/Murry Bergtraum) hit 3-for-6 with 3 RBI and Benjamin Biero (Bronx, NY/Wesley Chapel) went 2-for-4 with three RBI.  Alex Rodriguez (Bronx, NY/Adlai E. Stevenson) was credited with the loss, working 3.1 innings, striking out five and giving up five runs.

The Bloodhounds scored single runs in the first and third, but St. Joseph's matched twice in their half of the frame.  John Jay posted four runs in the fourth, knocking starter Chris Coffey (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund's) out of the game, and added two more runs in the fifth to build a six-run lead.  In the bottom of the fifth, St. Joseph's plated seven runs to take their first lead of the game, 9-8.  Six runs came during a two-out rally capped by a Mendez double to the center field wall that cleared the bases.

John Jay took the lead back with a two-run sixth, but the Bears matched the mark again in the bottom half on a Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) two-run double.  Another two-run inning in the seventh gave a 12-11 lead back to John Jay and St. Joseph's failed to score in the seventh and threatened to tie in the eighth, stranding Diaz at third base with no outs.

The Bloodhounds added an insurance run in the final inning to lead 13-11 with the heart of the Bears' lineup due up.  Langone led off the inning with a single and Mendez was called out on strikes, to his disagreement.  Davidson was hit by a pitch, bringing the Bears most potent hitter to the plate as the go-ahead run and Harten delivered the first walk-off home run in St. Joseph's College history.

John Jay (2-9) hosts SUNY Oswego on Sunday, March 21st for a doubleheader starting at noon at American Legion Fields in Brooklyn, NY.

St. Joseph's (1-2) returns to action on Saturday, March 20th for a two-game set against Emerson College which will be played at Diamond Nation in Flemington, NJ starting at noon.