Sloppy Play Dooms St. Joseph’s at Maritime

THROGGS NECK, NY – St. Joseph's was the recipient of both good and bad luck Thursday afternoon against SUNY Maritime. The Bears were able to climb to a 5-1 lead over the Privateers thanks to some early miscues, but gave the lead right back in a 10-5 loss.

Paul Piccirillo (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) started for St. Joseph's (3-16) and pitched well, allowing only four hits in 7.2 innings. He worked into and out of a jam in the bottom of the first, allowing only one unearned run to score before settling in and keeping Maritime (13-12) off the board for the next four innings. He took the loss and is 1-5 on the season.

The one-run Privateer lead held up until the top half of the third. An error allowed the inning to continue and Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) made Maritime pay with his second home run of the season. The opposite field, two-run bomb to right gave the Bears their first lead, 2-1.

Two innings later, the Bears took advantage of Maritime errors and padded their lead, scoring three more unearned runs. A two-out error allowed Joseph Boccia (Westwood, NJ/Westwood) to reach base and the inning continued. Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peters) doubled home Boccia and after a Diaz walk, Joseph Mendez (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) plated Cundari and Diaz with a double to left-center as the Bears went up 5-1.

Maritime began to chip away at the Bears lead, giving St. Joseph's a taste of their own medicine, scoring unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings to cut the lead to 5-4.

The errors finally caught up to the Bears in the eighth inning as they allowed five unearned runs on the inning, six in total and their 5-1 lead turned into a 10-5 loss.

The sloppy game saw 14 total errors and of the 15 runs scored, only one was earned.

Up next, St. Joseph's takes on cross-town rival John Jay on Saturday, April 16th. The doubleheader starts at 10:00 am at American Legion Field in Brooklyn.