THROGGS NECK, N.Y. (March 27, 2014) – Thursday evening signified the home opener for the Maritime baseball team as the Privateers welcomed in cross-sound rival Merchant Marine to Reinhart Field. Despite holding a 9-2 lead earlier in the contest, the Privateers fell by the score of 19-9 in eight innings.

Freshman Phil Marks (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) got the start for the Privateers but struggled in the top of the first as he allowed a walk and also hit three batters, coupled with two errors in the inning to end his night early. Marks was credited with just one out recorded on 19 pitches before making way for junior Paul Pfundstein (Deer Park, N.Y./Deer Park), who stemmed the tide at two runs in the inning for the Mariners.

As the game progressed to the bottom of the third inning, the Privateers got their two runs back and plenty more in the frame, after Pfundstein mowed down Merchant Marine in the second and third innings without allowing a hit.

Freshman Chris Stewart (Bethpage, N.Y./Chaminade) led off the inning with a single to left field, followed by junior Pat Kirk (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) picking up a double down the right field line to put a pair into scoring position. Senior Tom Bauer (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) singled to score Stewart and move Kirk up to third base before advancing to second on a wild pitch. Merchant Marine starter Joseph Policastro, forgetting there was a wild pitch attempted to throw the ball to a vacant first base on a pick off but was called for a balk to tie the game as Kirk came in to touch the plate.

Two batters later, senior Nick Galli (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph By the Sea) collected a base knock to centerfield to put the Privateers ahead by a 3-2 score. Junior Matthew Sollin (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) walked to put runners on first and second with one down, followed by junior Albert Doerbecker (Point Lookout, N.Y./Long Beach) singling to second base. On the play, the fielder bobbled the ball and allowed a speedy Galli to come around on the error. Up next was sophomore Paul Woodburn (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown), who drove a double to right centerfield to bring home Sollin and in the process chase Policastro from the contest.

As the inning continued with Nathan Slusarczyk on the hill, sophomore Bruce Tyler (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place)walked. Two batters later, Kirk was up once again and singled to centerfield to bring home two more runners and give Maritime a 7-2 advantage. Bauer then walked to load the bases, and bring up junior Joe Longo (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./St. John the Baptist), who singled to right to cap off the scoring in the inning at 9-2 with his two-run base hit.

On the hill, Pfundstein continued to roll as he yielded just one hit in the fourth inning. However, in the fifth inning, the left-hander ran into trouble as the Mariners plated four runs on four hits and one error in the field. Pfundstein continued into the sixth inning and retired two of the first three batters he faced before running out of gas. He continued to work through four more hits in the inning, while yielding four runs total in the frame as Merchant Marine regained the lead at a 10-9 mark.

The Maritime bats continued to go down silently aside from a Galli single in the sixth inning and a Doerbecker single in the seventh frame.

Sophomore pitcher David Ramos (Merrick, N.Y./Kellenberg) worked around an error in the top of the seventh, and was asked to continue into the eighth frame. In the inning, eight of the first nine batters reached in the inning as the Mariners continued to collect hit after hit. Freshman Charles Cosgriff (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) was brought on in relief and struggled with his command as he walked the next three batters to face him on 13 pitches. His last pitch of the night was the last of the game as a wild pitch went to the backstop to allow the 19th Mariner run to score.

With the 10-run lead the game was then called at that point due to the 10-run mercy rule agreed upon by the coaches prior to the contest.

On the mound, Pfundstein was saddled with the loss despite pitching well in the early portion of his outing. He was credited with pitching 5 2/3 innings, the second longest outing of his career, while allowing seven earned runs on 10 hits and striking out six batters on 118 pitches. Ramos went 1 2/3 innings on 56 pitches and allowed eight runs, while Cosgriff failed to retire a batter and walked three.

Picking up the win was Slusarczyk in relief, after tossing 4 2/3 innings and allowing just two earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out five. Policastro tossed the first 2 1/3 innings and allowed the first seven Privateer runs to score on seven hits and a pair of walks.

Maritime (4-10, 1-2 Skyline) will look to regroup on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. when the team hosts St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) Bears for a pair of seven inning contests. Please note the start time of Saturday's doubleheader as it was moved up two hours in anticipation of the rain later in the day.

Merchant Marine (9-5-1, 0-3 Landmark) will return to Kings Point to take on conference-rival Scranton for a pair of games on Saturday afternoon beginning at 12 p.m.