Langone's Blast in Ninth Tames Bearcats

BRONX, NY – Anthony Langone (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) hit a solo home run with two outs in the top of the ninth inning to lift the St. Joseph's College baseball team to a 16-15 non-conference victory over Baruch College in a wild  contest that saw eight lead changes, 31 runs, 35 hits and 15 errors.

Langone finished the game with a pair of hits, driving in four runs.  Chris Davidson (San Carlos, CA/Carlmont), who started the game on the mound, helped his own cause going 3-for-5 with a pair of two-run home runs and scoring four times.  Davidson finished with a no-decision throwing five innings giving up 12 runs (11 earned), striking out three.  Paul Piccirillo earned the win, improving to 2-2 on the bump, going the final four innings allowing three runs (none earned) on three hits, striking out eight and walking none.

Jon Mendez (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) extended his hitting streak to nine games collecting two hits, two RBI, three runs scored, a double and a stolen base.  Keith Juricich (San Mateo, CA/Serra) had a trio of hits, driving in a run and scoring a run.  Joe Harten (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) had a pair of hits, with two RBI.

David Chestnut led seven Bearcats with multi-hit games with a 4-for-6 outing scoring a pair of runs.  Manuel Guerrero hit a home run and had five RBI.  Richard Melendez scored three runs.  Jason Berliner took the loss going 5.0 innings, giving up six runs (two earned) on six hits, striking out five and walking three.

Davidson gave himself a two run cushion with a two run shot in the first.  Baruch took the lead in the bottom of the second stringing together five straight hits with two outs to plate four runs.

The game would then see saw back and forth over the next three innings until the Bears scored five runs in the top of the fifth and held Baruch to a lone run to maintain a 13-12 advantage.  The game settled down in the sixth and seventh innings as both teams went scoreless.  Piccirillo silenced the Bearcats through his first two innings of work allowing only one hit.

In the eighth, St. Joseph's added a pair of insurance runs to lead 15-12 helped by back-to-back Bearcat miscues.  The Bears returned the favor with a leadoff error in the bottom half of the frame and Guerrero made the Bears pay with a three-run home run to tie the game 15-15.

In the top of the ninth, after two strikeouts, Langone put St. Joseph's back on top for the final time with a solo blast.  Piccirillo retired the heart of the Baruch lineup in order to seal the win, striking out two of the final three batters.

St. Joseph's improves to 8-17 while Baruch falls to 11-17.  The Bears return to action on Saturday, April 24 taking on Old Westbury in a road twinbill starting at noon.