Bears Baseball Splits With Lincoln For Second Win

(BROOKLYN, NY)  St. Joseph's College men's baseball lost 13-9 and won 10-4 against Lincoln University on Sunday afternoon at Old Boys High School.  Jon Mendez (Brooklyn, NY/Xavarian) led the Bears over the two game set slugging 1.000, reaching base in 7-of-8 plate appearances, with two hits, a double, four walks, three runs scored and two stolen bases.  Mendez also pitched two scoreless, no-hit innings in the win.  Mykelle Cortez (Brooklyn, NY/Cobble Hill HS) pitched 5.0 innings, striking out four and picking up his first win of the season.

Lincoln University put up two runs in the opening frame, but St. Joseph's scored three in their half of the frame sparked by a two-out two-run double from Anthony Langone (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic).  Mario Noriega (Los Angeles, CA/South Pasadena) drove in Langone with a single to take a 3-2 lead.

Lincoln loaded the bases in the second inning, but Cortez got out of the jam forcing the number three hitter to ground out to shortstop.

Mendez led off the third getting hit by a pitch and advancing to second on wild pitch.  Chris Davidson(San Carlos, CA/Canada College) drove in Mendez with a single and an error by the right fielder moved him to third.  Langone singled to score Davidson for his third RBI of the game to put St. Joseph's up 5-2.

The top of the Lincoln lineup scored two more runs in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to one.  St. Joseph's extended the lead back to three in the bottom half of the inning with Davidson delivering another run with a two-out single.

The Bears added four insurance runs for Cortez in the fifth inning.  Noriega led off with a double to right field and later advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Jason Iannozzi (Brooklyn, NY/Kingsborough CC) scored Noriega with a sacrifice to center giving St. Joseph's a large four run cushion.  Alvaro Quinones (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Loughlin) singled to left and later scored on a Steven Tanamal (Brooklyn, NY/New Urtecht HS) single.  Quinones was also solid defensively in center field making three catches.

Mendez, a natural right-hander as a position player, relieved Cortez in the sixth inning pitching two scoreless innings as a lefty to close out the win.  Mendez struck out three batters and gave up no hits allowing only two baserunners on walks.  This was only Mendez's second appearance as a left-hander dating back to high school.

In the first game, both teams were tied 4-4 after four innings and tied 6-6 after six innings, but Lincoln took control of the game with a seven-run seventh inning, getting five hits off the St. Joseph's relievers.  The Bears put their first two batters on base in the bottom seventh, but then struck out twice to make any comeback hope slim.  Joseph Boccia (Westwood, NJ/Westwood) and Tanamal each had two-out singles to drive in three runs, but the St. Joe's rally would fall short 13-9.  Keith Juricich(San Mateo, CA/Canada College) started on the mound for the Bears pitching 4.2 innings striking out three and giving up four earned runs in the no decision.  Kevin Hernandez (Queens, NY/Newtown HS) received the loss in relief.

For the doubleheader, Tanamal went 3-for-6 with four RBIs, two walks, two runs scored and a stolen base.  Langone went 2-for-4 with a double, three RBIs, a run and a stolen base, playing in only one game.  Davidson, who leads the team in hitting, had another solid performance with two singles, two RBIs, two runs, and a theft.  Porcelli had a triple, with two runs knocked and two runs scored.  Boccia had two hits with a double, two RBIs and three runs scored.  Jacob Ramos (Hasbrouck Hts., NY/Hasbrouck) also scored two twice.

St. Joseph's travels to Hoboken, NJ to take on Stevens Tech for a doubleheader on Wednesday, March 25th.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.