Ninth Inning Rally Stopped at Home in Baseball's 9-8 Loss to Purchase

BELLEROSE N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team suffered a heartbreaking loss falling 9-8 to the Purchase College Panthers at Padavan-Preller Field on Wednesday night.

The Bears (13-6) saw a ninth inning rally come up short, as their tying run was gunned down at the plate to end the game trying to score on a sacrifice fly, giving the Panthers (14-9) the victory. After a red-hot 11-1 start, the Bears are suffering their only losing streak of the season, their skid extending to four games.

Mike Cundari (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) finished 2-for-4 with three RBI, three runs and blasted his third homer of the season. Kevin Diaz (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) and Danny Zaretsky (Brooklyn, NY/Lincoln) each batted 3-for-5 with a double, Zaretsky contributing two RBI and Diaz scoring a run. 

Purchase built as large as a five-run lead on two occasions, scoring two in the seventh to move up 9-4.

Needing three runs in their final at bat, the Bears cut the deficit to one off Chris Pacifico (Brooklyn NY/ St. Edmund Prep) and Zaretsky RBI singles. St. Joseph's had the bases loaded with one out and the tying and winning runs in scoring position when freshman Brian Luebcke (Astoria, NY/Monsignor McClancy) lifted a fly ball to center, Pacifico tagged up and darted for home plate, but was thrown out by Colin Morris who made a perfect throw to end the game.

Turning Points

The Panthers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning but the Bears answered with aggressive base running from shortstop Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, NY/St. Francis Prep) and a Cundari RBI single which consequently saw him come around to score after a careless throwing error by Purchase. 

Purchase broke the tie in the third inning when their designated hitter Ronald Echavarria drove in two runs with a triple to right field and never trailed again.

Echavarria struck again in the fifth with a two-run bomb and the Panthers increased their lead to 7-2. Cundari countered in the bottom half with a two-run homer of his own and cut the deficit to 7-4.

Panthers pushed two more across in the top of the 7th, building another five-run cushion.

In the home half of the eighth inning, Vinny Rossi (Bayside, NY/Holy Cross) opened with a leadoff double followed by a Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, NY/ Monsignor Farrell) walk. Zaretsky ripped a RBI double down the left field line scoring Rossi and Camerada later scored on a sacrifice fly from McKenna, making a nice slide at home to elude the catchers tag and settled the score at 9-6, setting up the dramatic ninth inning. 

Inside the Box Score

• Rossi went 2-for-5 with a triple, the only other Bear to finish with multiple hits.
• Matt Brigando (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) suffered his first loss of the season on the mound falling to 2-1, allowing seven runs and eight hits, while striking out three. 
• The Panthers were led by Ronald Echavarria who went 4-for-4 with four RBI. The senior designated hitter launched his fourth homer of the season and fell a double shy of hitting for the cycle.
• The Bears stranded 10 runners on base, five in scoring position.

News and Notes

• McKenna extended his hitting streak to a team-best 11 games with his leadoff single in the first. Joseph Mendez now has a nine-game streak.
• Kevin Diaz extended his reached base safely streak to 15 games. McKenna (11 games) and Mendez (10 games) stretched their respective streaks to double digits.
• Purchase leads the all-time series 7-1 and has captured the last five meetings.

Next up for the Bears – Centenary

St. Joseph's looks to get back in the win column as they take on Centenary this Saturday, April 13th at TD Bank Ballpark. Game one of the road doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.