Bears Three-Game Streak Snapped at Arcadia

PHILADELPHIA, PA – With a three-game win streak on the line and a .500 record within reach, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team knocked 10 hits but couldn't recover from an early deficit, falling to Arcadia University, 10-2, on Friday afternoon at Erny Field.

Arcadia (12-17) jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning without a hit as the Knights drew three walks and had three hit batters, two that brought home a run, the other scoring on a wild pitch.

The Knights padded their lead with a solo run in the second after Kyle Jackson led off with a triple and scored on the next batter.

St. Joseph's (13-15) finally got on the board in the fourth after Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) extended his hitting streak to nine games with a leadoff triple and scored on a Joe Mendez (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) sacrifice fly.  

But Arcadia got the runs back in the home half of the inning with the Knights three and four hitters, Justin Simpson and Jay Zehring, knocking back-to-back triples, both scoring to put the Knights back up 6-1.

The Bears threatened in the fifth inning with Chris Cutrone (Levittown, NY/Island Trees, HS) and Rob Mongiori (Jackson Heights, NY/Monsignor McClancy) leading the frame off with back-to-back singles, and Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, NY/St. Francis Prep) later drew a walk to load the bases, but the Bears came away with only one run on a Steven Ellis (Broad Channel, NY/St. Francis Prep) sacrifice fly, scoring Cutrone.

Freshman Matt Brigando (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) helped keep the game in check tossing two scoreless innings in relief starting in the sixth before Arcadia put the game out of reach with four runs in the eighth all coming unearned to Chris Vargas (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth).

Freshman Vinny Rossi (Bayside, NY/Holy Cross) recorded his 11th multiple hit game of the season with two base knocks, extending his hitting streak to a team-leading 10 games.

Mongiori rapped three hits, sharing game-high honors with the Knights' Simpson who did most of the damage, also scoring three times.  Sophomore Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) also extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single in the second inning. Senior Joseph Boccia (Westwood, NJ/Westwood) had his career-best 11 game hitting streak halted in the loss.

Kenny Smith (Belle Harbor, NY/Monsignor McClancy) suffered the loss on the mound in his first decision, giving up three runs in a third of an inning of work.

Jordan Hofferman went the distance for Arcadia improving to 5-1.

St. Joseph's will look to rebound returning to MCU Park to take on John Jay College on Tuesday, April 17th in the first of two games against the Bloodhounds next week. The Bears will be the road team on Tuesday and will host John Jay two days later at Padavan-Preller Field.