Baseball Eliminates No. 3 Tennessee Temple, Advances in USCAA Small College World Series

HAMPTON, Va. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team got some timely hitting in the later innings as they broke a tie and defeated No. 3-seeded Tennessee Temple, 4-2 in a USCAA Small College World Series elimination game at War Memorial Stadium.

The No. 9-seeded Bears (24-17) now move on to face the winner of the No. 5 Apprentice/No. 6 St. Joseph's (Vt.) game Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Sophomore Nicholas LoPrinzi (Howard Beach, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) scored a run and drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single that broke the 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth. Thomas McKenna (Bellrose, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) scored a run in the seventh after his third triple of the season, extending his school-record hit streak to 25 games. The senior has now hit successfully in all but two games this season.

First baseman Vinny Rossi (Bayside, N.Y./Holy Cross) drove in two runs along with a hit, while Francis Rapp (Baldwin, N.Y./Oceanside) went two-for-three and scored a run. Pitcher Brian Luebcke (Astoria, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) improved his record to 4-2 after tossing a complete game, allowing no earned runs on six hits while striking out two batters.

Ryan Bruce tripled home both runs for the Crusaders (21-12), while Micah Wyatt and Caden Shadrick each crossed the plate. Wyatt also added two hits, and struck out five batters over 6.1 frames in a losing effort on the mound.

Following a scoreless first inning for both teams, St. Joseph's grabbed the lead with two runs in the top of the second on Rossi's RBI single through the left side. Luebcke ran into some trouble in the bottom half of the second with two runners on, but induce back-to-back fielder's choice to escape.

After several scoreless innings in a row, the bottom of the fifth saw Tennessee Temple strike back. With two outs, the Crusaders put two runners on base with a single and a fielding error at first. Bruce knotted the game with a triple to right, but the inning ended when he was tagged out after falling down and colliding with the third-base coach.

The Bears responded the next half inning with a Michael Camerada (Staten Island, N.Y./Monsignor Farrell) leadoff single. Following two straight outs, Rapp laces a base hit to move M. Camerada to third.  LoPrinzi then delivered an RBI single back up the middle to break the tie at 3-2. They could not add more to their lead despite loading the bases.

After two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, Chase White singled and stole second to put the tying run in scoring position. Luebcke would work out of trouble again, striking out Caleb Lee to end the inning. 

McKenna pushed his hitting streak to a team-record 25 games with his third triple of the season. He would come home thanks to a fielding error on a Chris Cutrone (Levittown, N.Y./Island Trees) ground ball to second base, increasing the advantage to two runs. Luebcke would come out and pitch a one-two-three bottom half of the seventh to secure the win for the Bears.

The victory continues the Bears' best run through the USCAA National Championships in their third straight appearance in the tournament.