Bears Baseball Suffers First Loss Of Season in 2-1 Loss to Baruch

BELLEROSE, N.Y. – Sophomore Chris Cutrone (Levittown, NY/Island Trees HS) went the distance but the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team couldn't make up for two unearned runs in the first inning, falling 2-1 to Baruch College on Saturday afternoon at Padavan-Preller Field.

The Bears (8-1) suffer their first loss of the season and end their winning streak at 12 games, while the Bearcats (3-6) win their second straight.

Cutrone struck out a career-high-tying eight and held the Bearcats to five hits in his first nine-inning outing of his career and despite both runs coming unearned, suffers his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1. Baruch starter Joseph Cali (1-0) also went the distance for the visitors picking up his first win of the season striking out five.

For St. Joseph's, Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, NY/St. Francis Prep) went 3-for-3 and Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) went 2-for-4 and drove in the lone run for the Bears. The sophomore backstop also gunned down three Bearcats trying to steal second, helping to manage the deficit.

Turning Points

The Bears got off to a slow start and committed errors on the first two batters of the game that proved to be the difference. Angel Tejada made the Bears pay, delivering both with a two-run single for the game-winner.

Cundari led off the 4th with a single and later scored on Camerada's two-out base knock to right to cut the deficit in half.

Baruch threatened to tack on another run in the 8th after a leadoff double by Keith Ezersky, but he was later caught between third and home by Cutrone on a grounder back to the pitcher. The Bears tried to carry that momentum into the bottom half of the inning with McKenna leading off the frame with a single but was caught stealing second and Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) followed with another single but was picked off at first deflating any rally attempt.

Inside the Box Score

• St. Joseph's outhit the Bearcats, 9-4. Baruch produced the only extra base hit of the contest with a steady wind throughout the game.
• The Bears only managed one runner past second base all game. (Cundari coming around to score in the 4th.)
• After two errors in the first, the Bears committed four errors, the most in a single game this season.

News and Notes

• The eight-game winning streak to open the season is the best in program history and the longest winning streak in a single season.
• Cundari extended his program-record reached base streak to 25 games with his single in the 4th.
• Diaz extended his hitting streak to a current team-best five games.
• After recording multiple hits in each game played this season, Cutrone had his seven-game hitting streak snapped, the longest by a Bear so far this season.
• The Bears already have two walkoff wins this season and when the teams met last season St. Joseph's took a walkoff 6-5 victory, but the Bears couldn't assemble any theatrics in the ninth only managing a two-out single.
• The Bearcats improved to 4-2 in the all-time series. The two squads will meet again on April 4th.

Next Up for the Bears

The Bears will will travel to Philadelphia on on Tuesday, March 26 to face Cairn University in a single game starting at 3:30 p.m.