Luciano Extends Hitting Streak to 28 Games With Walk-Off Single Against Neumann

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La Plume, PA – Kevin Luciano (Everett, MA/Cambridge Rindge and Latin School) extended his hitting streak to 28 games by hitting a walk-off single to give Keystone College a 6-5 victory over Neumann University in an exciting, Colonial States Athletic Conference game at Christy Mathewson Field on Friday afternoon.  The Giants, who rallied with a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to earn the win, improve to 18-10 on the season while leveling their conference record at 4-4 with their sixth win in their last seven games.

Luciano has now hit safely in all 27 games he has played in to start this season and his hitting streak now stands at 28 games dating back to the last game of the 2014 season.  Friday's game-winning hit is the second walk-off hit the senior has collected this week streak alive   
 
Neumann (11-7, 6-4 CSAC) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning by taking advantage of a Keystone fielding error to score the first run of the game, but the Giants answered back with three, two-out in the bottom of the frame to take a 3-1 lead.  Chris Bzozowski (Westampton, NJ/Bishop Eustace) hit a two-run single before Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) delivered an RBI single through the right side.
 
The Knights got a run back on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth inning to cut their deficit to 3-2, but the Giants responded in the bottom half of the inning when Eduardo Familia (Bronx, NY/Collegio Utesianode Estudios Integrados) ripped a double to the wall in left-center that brought home Reyes from first to give the hosts a 4-2 advantage.
 
Neumann again made it one-run contest in the visitor's eighth with another sacrifice fly, cutting Keystone's lead to 4-3 and took their first lead of the game in the top of the ninth inning by scoring a pair of unearned runs with two outs.
 
Julian Lanfrano led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a base hit.  The junior then stole second and scored the tying run on a pair of errors by the Knights on the play.  Dylan Corl (Morrisdale, PA/West Branch ) then reached on an error, advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt, and moved 90 feet away from home on a Gaston Rojas (Carmel, NY/Carmel) sacrifice fly.  Luciano then drove Corl in with the game-winning run by sneaking a single through the left side of the Neumann infield, out of the reach of the diving third baseman and shortstop.
 
Keystone's Felix Baez (San Juan, PR/Colegio Presbiteriano) turned in another strong start, striking out 10 batters, while yielding a pair of runs – only one of which was earned - in seven innings while scattering three hits. Charles Morreale (Lawrenceville, NJ/Lawrence) gave up one run on two hits in 0.1 innings while Jake Granteed (West Pittston, PA/Wyoming Area) retired the only two batters he faced to close out the eighth inning.  Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva) (1-0) was credited with his first win on the mound this season after moving from shortstop to the mound in the ninth inning and surrendering a pair of unearned runs on two hits while fanning one batter.
 
Corl, Reyes, and Lanfranco had two hits apiece to lead Keystone, who outhit Neumann by a 10-7 margin on the day.
 
Neumann starter Matt Anderson took a no-decision after surrendering four runs on seven hits to go along with five strikeouts in six innings on the hill.  Chris Rupprecht pitched two scoreless innings in relieve while Kevin Corris (0-1) suffered the loss after yielding two unearned runs in the ninth inning.
 
AJ Koscelansky had two hits and two RBIs for the Knights, who also got a pair of hits from Buddy Elgin.
 
Keystone and Neumann will close out their regular season series on Saturday with a doubleheader at Neumann that is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m. in Aston, Pennsylvania.