Pasetti Fans 10, McKenna Joins 100-RBI Club as Baseball Downs Purchase to Level Record

BELLEROSE, N.Y.—Sophomore Connor Pasetti (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) struck out a career-high 10 and senior Thomas McKenna (Bellerose, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) launched his team-leading fourth home run of the season to lead the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team to an 11-4 triumph over Purchase College on Wednesday afternoon at Padavan-Preller Field.

The Bears (16-16) reach the .500 mark for the third time this season and snap a five-game skid to their future Skyline Conference rivals in the all-time series.

Purchase (9-17) drew first blood with solo shot by Nick Kulbaba in the top of the first, the first of three combined home runs in the game. But St. Joseph's quickly responded with two in the home half of the inning, taking advantage of a Panther miscue and a Brian Luebcke (Astoria, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) RBI single and the Bears never trailed again knocking 15 hits for the contest and posting runs in every inning except with sixth.

The Bears took a 3-1 lead in the second on a Patrick Broder (Baldwin, N.Y./Oceanside) RBI single, starting off a 3-for-4 day with two runs scored in just his second position start of the season.

A Ryan Aponte solo blast in the third cut the Panther deficit to one before a Francis Rapp (Baldwin, N.Y./Oceanside) sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning pushed the lead back to 4-2.

Vinny Rossi (Bayside, N.Y./Holy Cross) and Broder led off the fourth with back-to-back singles before McKenna broke the game open with a three-run blast, his 10th career homer run, moving him into solo third on the Bears all-time home run list. The dinger extended the senior's hitting streak to a Bears-record 16 games and also was hit 100th RBI—McKenna joining Joe Mendez '14 and Mike Cundari '14 as the only Bears to reach the mark.

The five-run cushion was more than enough for Pasetti whose 10 strikeouts fell one short of matching the Bears single-game record. Over six innings of work, the sophomore allowed three runs on six hits to improve to 3-2 on the season. Anthony Inserillo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) closed out the victory in a non-save situation tossing two near perfect innings, his only blemish a two-out walk in the ninth.

Luebcke also collected three hits on the day with Broder, finishing 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI. McKenna finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and four RBI and Domenick Camerada (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) also had a multi-hit day going 2-for-5 with a run scored.

Frank Fatino took the loss for the Panthers on the mound working five innings, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits, his record declining to 1-4. Kulbaba led the visitors at the plate with a 2-for-4 effort with two RBI.

St. Joseph's will look to move above .500 for the first time this season, returning to Padavan-Preller Field tomorrow to host Cairn University in a single game starting at 4 p.m. Live stats will be available at SJCBears.com.