McKenna Crowned New Bears Hits King as Baseball Rallies to Sweep John Jay

BELLEROSE, N.Y.—The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team cruised past John Jay College with a 10-1 win in their opener but needed some late inning heroics for a 3-2 victory in game two to secure a doubleheader sweep on a very windy Saturday afternoon at Padavan-Preller Field.

With the sweep, the Bears (9-10) win their third straight and pull within one game of reaching the .500 mark for the second time this season. St. Joseph's also collects their 12th straight victory over the Bloodhounds (0-14) in the all-time series, improving to 14-3, with the two squads set to meet again for a double dip next Wednesday.

Senior Vinny Rossi (Bayside, N.Y./Holy Cross) went 4-for-5 on the afternoon scoring a run, driving in one and stealing a base. Senior Chris Cutrone (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees) knocked three hits with a double, extending his hitting streak to six games, scoring three times and swiping a bag. Bobby Perretti (Howard Beach, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) and Francis Rapp (Baldwin, N.Y./Oceanside) were the top run producers with three RBI each, Rapp producing the game-winner in game two.

Entering the game with tied as the program's all-time hits leader, senior Thomas McKenna took over the solo lead lacing a two-RBI double in the opener for the record setting hit. Also knocking a hit in game two, McKenna extended his hit streak to four and has 176 hits through 129 games played amassing a .371 career average, just two points off the all-time record.

St. Joseph's jumped on Bloodhound starter Michael Wang early in the opener, building a 5-0 lead after two. A Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) two-run single in the first started the scoring and the Bears tacked on three more in the second on a Perretti triple to the gap scoring three Rossi and Michael Camerada (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) who led off the frame with singles. Brian Luebcke (Astoria, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) knocked a double to score Perretti.

The five-run cushion was all sophomore Mitch Brigando (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) would need as he went the distance, striking out four and surrendering just three hits in improving to a perfect 4-0 on the season.

The Bloodhounds finally got to Brigando for a solo run in the fifth, but the Bears responded with five in the home half to blow the game wide open.

Game two proved to be a pitchers duel as Luebcke took the hill and tossed four perfect innings to start off but Nick Gioia also held the Bears to three hits to keep the game scoreless.

The visitors finally tagged Luebcke in the fifth for three hits and producing a pair of runs on a Dylan Laudano single and a Jason Gonzalez double to draw first blood.

Still trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, the Bears finally broke through as Cutrone opened the frame with a double, advanced to third on a D. Camerada fly out and scored on a Nicholas LoPrinzi (Howard Beach, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) sacrifice fly to cut the deficit in half.

The Bears continued their rally in the sixth with two outs as Rossi followed with a single and Anthony Inserillo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) came in to pinch run and promptly stole second to move into scoring position. A John Jay miscue on a M. Camerada grounder kept the inning alive and Rapp punished the Bloodhounds delivering Inserillo and M. Camerada with the game-winning two-RBI single to left field.

In the seventh, the Bloodhounds managed a lone hit off Luebcke, but the junior shut the door with him standing at second, striking out sixth batter to cap the complete game victory. Luebcke would scatter four hits and walked none en route to improving to 2-1 on the season.

After playing five games in three days, St. Joseph's takes a day off for Easter and resumes another busy stretch of nine games in seven days next week returning to the diamond hosting Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham on Monday, April 6. The single game will begin at 5 p.m. at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank, N.Y. with live stats available on SJCBears.com.