Baseball Earns First Win Over USCAA Foe Briarcliffe in Split

HOLBROOK, N.Y.—Powered by three hits each from Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) and Francis Rapp (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) in game two, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team earned a doubleheader split with United States Collegiate Athletic Association rival Briarcliffe College dropping game one, 3-1, before convincingly taking game two, 9-2, on Sunday afternoon at the PAL Complex.

St. Joseph's (13-15) got on the board quickly in the opener plating a solo run without a hit in the top of the first on a Brian Luebcke (Astoria, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) sacrifice fly, but the Bulldogs (5-13) claimed the lead for good in the home half of the inning with two runs.

But the Bears managed to just get three hits the remainder of the game off Bulldog starter Charles Basedow and couldn't give any run support to Chris Cutrone (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees) who went the distance for the Bears in defeat, striking out six and scattering eight hits.

The Bears bats came alive however in game two pounding out 14 hits to secure their first victory over the Bulldogs in seven meetings all-time. St. Joseph's scored first with a solo run in the second on a Vinny Rossi (Bayside, N.Y./Holy Cross) sacrifice fly, scoring Rapp who led off with a double.

St. Joseph's built a 3-0 lead pushing across two more runs in the third on a Luebcke single, later scoring on a Bulldog two-out error.

Briarcliffe scored solo runs in the third and fourth innings to cut the deficit to one, but the Bears posted three in the fifth and an three more insurance runs in the seventh to pull away.

McKenna finished 4-for-8 over the twin bill to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, matching a team high set by himself earlier this season and Cutrone. McKenna also scored two runs and drove in a run.

Rapp would finish 3-for-4 in game two, scoring three runs with two RBI and a double. Cutrone knocked a pair of doubles in game two as Anthony DeFillippo (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) and Nicholas LoPrinzi (Howard Beach, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) also finished with a pair of hits and scored a run.

Mitch Brigando (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) worked 6 1/3 innings in relief allowing just one earned run on five hits, while striking out two and walking three to improve to 5-1 on the season.

The Bears will return to the diamond on Wednesday, April 22 for a single game against future Skyline Conference foe Yeshiva University. First pitch is slated for 8 p.m. at Taft High School in the Bronx.