PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (April 27, 2019) – The USMMA baseball team swept Skyline Conference opponent St. Joseph's-Brooklyn on Saturday, winning the first game 8-3, before taking the second, 4-1. With the two wins, Merchant Marine 11th-year head coach Michael Notebaert earned his 200th career victory. The Mariners end the regular season with a 27-9 record (14-4 Skyline), with the 27 wins a program record for the regular season, while the Bears fall to 15-19-1 (4-14 Skyline) with the losses.
The wins also now fully guarantees that the Mariners will be the #2 seed in the upcoming Skyline Tournament, as they will earn a bye through the first round into the double-elimination championship tournament next weekend.
Game 1 Highlights
Sophomore Joe Raab (Edwardsburg, Mich.) got the start and earned the victory, as he moves to 5-1 on the season after hurling six innings, giving up two runs on six hits with 10 strikeouts. It was his fourth double-digit strikeout effort of the season.
The Mariners got an inning of relief from three pitchers – senior John Kelly Jr. (Apex, N.C.), who tossed a 1-2-3 seventh, sophomore Quinton Heck (Massillon, Ohio), who allowed a run on one hit in the eighth, and senior Trevor Fox (Northport, N.Y.), who pitched a clean ninth with one strikeout.
At the plate, freshman Joshua Costlow (Lithia, Fla.) and sophomore Colin Baker (Clyde Hill, Wash.) both had two hits and two RBIs, as Costlow also scored twice and stole two bases and Baker had one of three Mariner doubles.
Merchant Marine scored three in the second and added another in the third before St. Joe's answered with two in the bottom of the third to make it 4-2.
The Mariners hung one more in the fourth and extended its lead to 8-2 with three in the seventh before the Bears closed out the scoring in the bottom of the eight with a run.
Like Costlow and Baker, senior Kyle Cunningham (Panama City Beach, Fla.) also had two hits and he knocked in one run on a sacrifice fly in the third. Also picking up RBIs for the Mariners were sophomore Alex Mesaros (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and junior Matt Mundorf (San Luis Obispo, Calif.), who also both had doubles.
Cunningham and Mundorf both stole two bases, while sophomore Vincenzo Alteri (Watertown, N.Y.) also had a swipe.
Mundorf scored twice, and four other Mariners also touched home safely – Alteri, Cunningham, Mesaros and senior Jesse Reinebold (Sagamihara, Japan).
Game 2 Highlights
In his first action since taking a liner off his arm two weeks ago, senior Andrew Spinnenweber (Pasadena, Md.) started the second game and tossed five innings of one-run ball on five hits with four strikeouts. He picked up the victory to move to 5-0.
Sophomore Andrew Hunt (Severna Park, Md.) tossed an inning of relief and gave up just one hit in the sixth, while Cunningham earned his 11th save of the season with a scoreless seventh with one strikeout despite giving up two hits.
Baker had another two-hit game, knocking in a run on a double in the second and scoring one in the fifth on an RBI double by Reinebold.
Senior Tyler Mowry (Peachtree City, Ga.) opened the scoring in the second with an RBI squeeze bunt that brought Mundorf in.
Mundorf had three stolen bases in the game and scored twice. The Mariners' other run was scored by freshman Zac Skov (San Clemente, Calif.) on Baker's double.
The double-elimination Skyline Tournament will take place at top-seeded Farmingdale State next weekend beginning on Friday, May 3. More information on the tournament will be released by the Skyline Conference later this weekend. Live links for the Skyline Championship will be available with links on the USMMA Baseball Schedule Page.