Six-Run Eighth Propels Bears Baseball Past Cairn in Comeback Win

LANGHORNE, Pa. -- The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team scored six runs in the top of the eighth inning to capture a 9-7, come-from-behind road victory over Cairn University on Wednesday afternoon. 

The Bears (9-1) averted their first losing streak of the season and ended the Highlanders (3-12) two-game streak.

Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) finished with a 3-for-5 game including a double, collecting half of the Bears' six hits in the contest. Simon Diaz (South Plainfield, NJ/South Plainfield) and Brian Luebcke (Astoria, NY/Monsignor McClancy) each picked up RBI singles in the deciding eighth inning.

St. Joseph's had to play catch up after Cairn drew first blood with three runs in the first inning. The Bears cut the deficit to one, 3-2, after their third at bat, but the Highlanders built a 7-3 advantage through seven full innings.

In the top of the eighth, the Bears jumped on Highlander starter Joey Nieves-Markee, who kept the Bears bats quiet most of the game. Cundari started the scoring with a double and Diaz and Luebcke later delivered the tying runs with back-to-back bases loaded singles. The Bears took the lead for good with two more runs off a Highlander error.

With a 9-7 lead in hand, reigning two-time AD3I Player of the Week Chris Cutrone (Levittown, NY/Island Trees) came in to work the eighth and ninth innings and held the Highlanders to just one hit for his first career save and Elvis Diaz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) finished with his first career win (1-0) on the hill working two-thirds of an inning in relief in the seventh. 

Turning Points

Two-out triples from Caleb Lang and Austin Arseneau in the first gave the Highlanders a 3-0 lead that they would maintain until the eighth.

St. Joseph's knocked only two hits off Cairn starter Nieves-Markee entering the eigth, but he worked himself into a jam hitting the leadoff batter Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) then forced a groundout, but Cundari knocked a double to start the scoring and Nieves-Markee failed to retire the next four batters, walking Cutrone and hitting Rossi to load the bases.

Nieves-Markee then plunked Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell), his third hit batter of the frame, and S. Diaz delivered a crucial single that cut the deficit to 7-6 and prompted a pitching change. With the bases still loaded, Luebcke followed with another single to knot the game and the Highlanders nearly escaped the frame tied at 7-7 before a two-out error gave the Bears the deciding runs.

Inside the Box Score

• Chris Vargas (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) worked three solid innings of one-hit ball in relief, striking out four and allowing one unearned run, entering the game in the third.
• Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, NY/St. Francis Prep) finished with a hit, run and RBI
• K. Diaz, Camerada and Cutrone also picked up RBIs in the victory.
• Nieves-Markee tossed five innings of no-hit ball to open the game, ended by McKenna's single to lead off the sixth. Despite holding the Bears to just four hits in 7.1 innings, Nieves-Markee handed out six walks and hit three batters. 

News and Notes

• This is the third come-from-behind victory when trailing after six innings.
• Cundari extended his program-record reached base streak to 26 games and has a team-leading three-game hitting sterak
• K. Diaz saw in hitting streak snapped at five games, but still works on a six-game reached base safely streak
• Cutrone's save is on the third in Bears history with Vargas and Thomas Decapua (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) holding the other saves.
• S. Diaz drove in his first career RBI in a crucial moment making his first official at bat this season and having not batted at all in 2012.

Up Next for the Bears

The Bears resume a busy stretch of five games in four days, traveling to Madison, N.J. to face Drew University (5-8) on Thursday, March 28 starting at 4 p.m. Live stats will be available on SJCBears.com with updates on Twitter at @SJCBears.