Bears Baseball Notches 10th Win Cruising Past Drew, 12-1

MADISON, N.J. – Powered by six shutout innings by senior Paul Piccirillo (Brooklyn, NY/Xavierian), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team defeated Drew University, 12-1, on Thursday afternoon at Doc Young Field.

The Bears (10-1) assemble another streak after their come-from-behind win over Cairn yesterday while the Rangers (5-9) have now lost six games in a row.

St. Joseph's struck early and often, scoring at least one run in each inning besides the seventh. The Bears scored in the first inning and would not look back as the Rangers had no answer for Piccirillo who dealt three perfect innings to start the game and held the Rangers to three hits and fanned three in six innings of work in his third win of the season.

Sophomore Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, NY/St. Francis Prep) led the Bears going 2-for-5 with three runs scored while driving in two. Junior Joe Mendez (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) recorded a team-high three RBI. 

Vinny Rossi (Bayside, NY/Holy Cross), Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's), Chris Cutrone (Levittown, NY/Island Trees) and Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) each contributed two hits apiece. Cutrone finished with three runs scored along with an RBI while Camerada scored a run and had an RBI.

Turning Point

McKenna opened the game with an RBI double setting the tone for the game and would later score on a grounder by senior Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell). The Bears would tack on solo runs in each of the four innings.

Piccirillo responded to this early run support retiring the first 11 batters. Drew would not have a baserunner reach third base until the bottom of the fifth but by that time the Bears were up 6-0 and well on their way to their tenth win of the season.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• The offense provided plenty of run support with 13 hits and nine different Bears collecting a base knock.
  
• Four different Bears finished with multi-RBI games (McKenna, Diaz, Mendez and Danny Zaretsky (Brooklyn, NY/Lincoln)
• The Bears went 7-for-19 (.368) with runners in scoring position and had five two-out RBI
• Matt Brigando (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) threw two shutout innings in relief of Piccirillo allowing only two hits.

NEWS AND NOTES

• Piccirillo is 3-0 on the season and has won his last 13 decisions dating back to 2011.
• Cundari extended his program-record reached base streak to 27 games and has a team-high four game hitting streak
• Nicholas Calabrese (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) knocked his first collegiate hit in the ninth
• The Bears have captured the last two meetings vs. Drew and now trail in the all-time series, 2-3.

NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS

St. Joseph's has a quick turnaround as they play CCNY at Randalls Island tomorrow with first pitch set for 10:30 a.m.