Baseball Withstands Baruch Rally to Win Fourth Straight

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Led by three-hit days at the plate by Anthony DeFillippo (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian HS), Chris Cutrone (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees HS) and Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team earned a 6-3 triumph over Baruch College on Thursday afternoon at MCU Park.

St. Joseph's (10-6) has now won a season-high four games in a row and nine of their last 11, while Baruch (6-11) has dropped three in a row.

The Bears got on the board early scoring a run in their first at bat on a Joe Mendez (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) sacrifice fly to take an early 1-0 lead and would lead the rest of the way.

St. Joseph's tacked on a single run in the home half of the third and the bottom of the fourth on  a Cutrone RBI single and a DeFillippo single that plated Nicholas LoPrinzi (Howard Beach, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) in the fourth, giving the Bears a 3-0 advantage after four innings.

St. Joseph's used a balanced approach on the mound with five pitchers seeing action on the day and they kept the Bearcats hitters at bay, surrendering only two hits through the first five innings.

The Bears added a pair of runs in the fifth to take a 5-0 lead and it looked like they were going to cruise to their fourth straight win.

However, the Baruch bats did not go down quietly as they strung together back-to-back singles with one out before Angel Tejeda sent a shot over the left-field fence that gave the Bearcats some life and cut the St. Joseph's lead to 5-3.

Camerada came through with a sacrifice fly in the seventh to put the Bears up 6-3 and that was all the cushion freshman Connor Pasetti (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) would need as he went the final three innings, allowing only one hit while striking out three to pick up the save.

Senior Donny Pagano (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) made the start for the Bears and threw two scoreless innings allowing a lone hit in the second to pick up the win and improve to 1-3 on the year.

Camerada and Cutrone both finished the day a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish with each driving in a run and Cutrone scoring twice. DeFillippo finished with a career-high three hits in his first collegiate start going 3-for-5 with a run scored and his first collegiate RBI. LoPrinzi concluded the afternoon going 2-for-4 with a run scored.

TURNING POINT

St. Joseph's used back-to-back singles from DeFillippo and Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) to start the game off. After they advanced a base on a wild pitch, Mendez drove home DeFillippo with a flyout to right field to give the Bears a 1-0 lead and they would build on that throughout the game and hold off a Baruch rally to secure the win.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORES

• Other Contributors: Vinny Rossi (1-for-2, RBI) McKenna (1-for-3, R) Mitch Brigando (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 K) Anthony Van Sise (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R)
• St. Joseph's managed 13 hits off Baruch pitching, while holding the Bearcats to just six base knocks.
• The Bears left ten men on base compared to six by Baurch.
• A combined eight pitchers saw action between the two teams.
• The two teams played a strong game defensively as neither team committed an error.

THE BEAR FACTS

• The home run allowed by the Bears was the third allowed by the staff this season.
• Cutrone is now five hits shy of 100 for his career.
• The Bears improve to 3-5 all-time against the Bearcats, snapping a two-game losing streak.
• St. Joseph's improves to 4-1 in home games this season.

NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS – SUNY CANTON

St. Joseph's is back in action on Saturday, April 5th, taking on SUNY Canton in a doubleheader at the SJC Outdoor Complex at 12 p.m. that has USCAA Small College World Series implications. Live stats and video for both games will be available at SJCBears.com.