Baseball Stumbles Against Manhattanville

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) baseball team dropped both games of their Skyline Conference doubleheader against Manhattanville College on Saturday afternoon, falling 8-2 in game one and losing the second game 9-3 at the SJC Outdoor Field Complex

Game 1: Manhattanville 8, St. Joseph's 2

The Valiants came to the plate aggressive as they took the early lead on the Bears taking a 7-0 lead in the top of the first. After the early outburst, both teams' hitters were held to just one hit over the next three innings. SJC finally broke through in the fifth on an Abner Victor (San Pedro De Macorís, Dominican Republic / John Adams) two-out single through the left side which brought in Louis Lombardi, (Brooklyn, N.Y. / St. Edmund Prep) who led off the inning with a single.

After giving up the early seven-run lead, Bears starting pitcher, Andrew Monda (2-3) (Centereach, N.Y. / Newfield) settled on the bump and kept the Valiants scoreless in the last two frames. The sophomore went the distance, but took the loss, giving up eight runs with five of them earned on 12 hits.

St. Joseph's tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth after Anthony Hernandez (Selden, N.Y./Newfield) belted a triple and scored on a Chris Leary (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral Park Memorial) single, but that would be all the scoring for the Bears in the opener.

Game 2: Manhattanville 9, St. Joseph's 3

After a scoreless first, the visitors took an early 1-0 lead in the second but the Bears got the run back in the bottom half as Victor knocked a two-out double to left field that scored Mike Medina Jr. (Selden, N.Y./Newfield), who reached base on an error.

The Valiants went back ahead with three in the third but the Bears cut the deficit to 4-2, tallying a solo run in the third on a Hernandez double that scored Doug Paider (Glendale, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy), who led off with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error.

The navy and gray were held scoreless until the sixth inning and fell behind 6-2 but assembled their biggest threat. Lombardi started the inning off with a double and scored on a Medina single to cut the deficit to 6-3. After a pair of walks to load the bases, the Bears had the potential go-ahead run at the plate but came away empty-handed.

A triple by Dominic Yumul (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands/Marianas) for his first collegiate hit highlighted the final three frames for the Bears, but SJC couldn't push any runs across.

For the Bears

• Hernandez finished 4-for-7 on the day to lead the offense. He knocked three hits in the nightcap, two doubles, and drove in a run.
• Lombardi went 2-for-7 at the plate with two RBIs.
• Victor went 2-for-4 with a double and drove in a run in both ends.
• Matt McHugh (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip) started game two for the Bears on the bump and took the loss after allowing five hits and four earned runs.
• Justin Conaty (Brooklyn, N.Y./James Madison), Zach Schnabel (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage), Ryan Wnorowski (Maspeth, N.Y./St. John's Prep) combined to hold the Valiants to one hin over the final 2.2 scoreless innings of game two.

Next Up

The Bears look to bounce back tomorrow, April 10 hosting Purchase College in a Skyline Conference doubleheader. First pitch from Patchogue, N.Y. is scheduled for 1 p.m with live stats and video accessible on sjcbears.com/live.