Mount Saint Mary Spoils Bears Afternoon With Seven Run Sixth

BELLEROSE, NY – The St. Joseph's College baseball team couldn't overcome a seven run sixth inning by Mount Saint Mary and dropped their third straight game, suffering a 10-7 setback on Thursday afternoon at Padavan-Preller Fields.

The game featured a combined four home runs by both teams, including several near home runs, the first coming off the bat of Louis Peisel in the second inning, a solo shot that gave Mount Saint Mary (15-14) a 1-0 lead.

Knights pitcher Dan McCrea cruised through three innings, keeping the Bears hitless and striking out four in the process. After a Danny Contant (Staten Island, NY/Xaverian) walk with one out, Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) ended the no-hitter and the shutout all in one swing. His home run to left center was his third this season and gave the Bears a 2-1 lead. The team threatened to add more in the fourth loading the bases, but McCrea picked up his fifth strikeout to end the threat.

After the Peisel home run, Paul Piccirillo (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) found his groove retiring the next nine batters. In the fifth, he worked out of a bases loaded jam to preserve the Bears one run lead.

Picirillo got two easy flyouts to start the sixth and appeared to be in complete control. With runners on first and second, a Bears miscue on a slow grounder extended the inning and the Blue Knights would make the Bears pay. Angel Biondo followed with a drive that hit the top of the left field fence that nearly went for a grand slam, but ended up a bases clearing double. Three batters later, with the bases loaded once again, Michael Morelli cleared the left field fence and gave Mount Saint Mary an 8-2 lead.

St. Joseph's started to chip away in the bottom half of the sixth. Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peters) launched a two-run home run, his second of the season, to bring the Bears within four, 8-4.

In the seventh, the Bears gathered some momentum for another late inning rally with a two-out double by Joseph Mendez (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) followed by an RBI single by Jon Mendez (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian), but the Blue Knights escaped the inning throwing out Joe Mendez at the plate limiting the damage to one run.

Mount Saint Mary tacked on a run in the eighth to go up 9-5. St. Joseph's started the bottom half of the frame with three straight hits from Cundari, a Danny Zaretsky (Brooklyn, NY/Lincoln) double and a Thomas Karasinski (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) RBI single. Trailing 9-6 with the tying run at the plate and nobody out, the Bears couldn't get another hit to dig deeper into Mount Saint Mary's lead.

Chris Vargas (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) and Joe Chiusano (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund's ) came out of the bullpen to limit the Knights and keep the Bears within striking distance. Vargas threw two innings and allowed one run and Chiusano allowed an unearned run in his inning of work.

Both teams scored a run in the ninth and the Bears never made another serious threat to the Knights' lead, falling 10-7.

St. Joseph's (5-19) picked up 13 hits, the seventh time this season they cracked double-digit hits. Diaz and Cundari each finished with three hits and two RBI to lead the team at the plate. Jon Mendez and Zaretsky had two apiece. Diaz and Jon Mendez extended their hitting streaks to six games.

Piccirillo took the loss for the Bears, falling to 1-6 on the season.  He struck out five and allowed eight runs in six innings, but only one was earned. Of the Knights' ten runs, only two were earned.

McCrea improved to 3-4 on the mound for Mount Saint Mary, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out five in five innings of work.

The Bears begin a stretch of five road games tomorrow as they look to avenge a loss to the United States Merchant Marine Academy from earlier in the season. First pitch is slated for 4:00 pm in Kings Point, NY.