March 21, 2021

Johnnies stay undefeated with Sunday sweep

More news about: Bethany Lutheran | St. John-s
St. Joseph's College (L.I.) opened the 2021 season with a split against Mt. St. Vincent at Gregg Alfano Field on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles came from behind to take game one 5-2 before dropping game two 8-2. SJCLI sits at 1-1 as CMSV moves to 3-1.
St. Joseph (L.I.) athletics photo

Saint John's (Minn.) continued its winning ways with a doubleheader sweep of Bethany Lutheran, 5-3 and 12-5, on Sunday, March 21, at Becker Park. Junior catcher Ethan Roe recorded his second, three-homer game of the young season in game two, while sophomore designated hitter Max Nyrop went 6-for-9 with a home run, two doubles and five RBI in the two victories for SJU (7-0 overall). The Johnnies committed seven errors, but batted .426 (26-for-61) – to the Vikings' .196 (11-for-56) – on the day. SJU out-hit BLC .522 (12-for-23) to .063 (1-for-16) with two outs.

SUNY New Paltz opened up its 2021 season Sunday with a doubleheader on the road against Skidmore College. New Palyz won 6-1 and 7-1. The Hawks (2-0 overall) had two solid outings by their starting pitchers Anthony Amoroso and Nick Harvey to combine with timely hitting all along their lineup, which helped them earn two comfortable victories for the series sweep over the Thoroughbreds (0-2), 6-1 and 7-1, respectively. "I thought from top to bottom we were really good today," said SUNY New Paltz coach Thomas Seay. "We got two really quality starts from Anthony Amoroso and Nick Harvey and that really, really helps and outside of a half-inning the bullpen did a really nice job of throwing strikes, but we minimized. We didn't give up the big inning. We had big innings ourselves and then after we put up runs we were able to have shutdown innings. That's what we talked about throughout the offseason. We did a really good job on the mound with that today."

Misericordia University swept a doubleheader from Wilkes, Sunday at Tambur Field. The Cougars won 13-2, 7-3, to take three-out-of-four in the weekend series.Shane Hughes had two hits and Santino Manganella, Dante Salerno and Derrick Vosburg all drove in two runs in the opener. Brendan Gray tossed five shutout innings to earn the win. Austin Miles had two hits in the nightcap and Tyler Leonard earned the win with 4.1 innings of no-hit relief.

SUNY Old Westbury (4-0, 3-0 Skyline) extended its winning streak to four, by completing a sweep of the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) Bears (0-6, 0-3 Skyline) by a score of 11-4 in the Skyline Conference showdown and was followed by the non-conference 14-2 final. The Panthers broke the scoring ice in the home half of the opening frame. In the top of the fourth inning, the Bears tried to make a comeback but the Panthers immediately stepped on the gas and scored six-straight runs that would ultimately seal the 11-4 victory. In game two, Old Westbury registered five first inning runs that were highlighted by a two-run home run by Brandon Wilson (3-for-3, 3 RBI, HR, 2 R) that cleared the left field fence off of Bear starter C.J. Bunnicelli. Scoring the final nine runs of the game, Old Westbury won going away.

Capital University earned its first win of the season with a big 12-5 win over John Carroll University in game one of Sunday's twinbill. John Carroll returned the favor in game two, with a 12-2 win leading to a split for the Purple and White. Three Crusaders finished with multiple hits, including Cole Callaghan (2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI), Garrot ennedy (2-5, 2 R, 1 RBI) and Connor Feeney (2-4, 1 R). Joshua Tyler scored three times despite going 0-for-2 with two walks. Dalton Anker (W, 1-0) earned his first win after throw 5.2 solid innings for Cap. He surrendered four runs, three earned, and nine hits. Bryant Caporale entered and threw a spirited 3.1 innings to earn a long save. He allowed just one run on three hits while striking out one. John Carroll responded in game two with a 12-2 victory in an eight-inning affair. JCU's John Merrill (W, 2-0) tossed six innings and help Capital to three hits and one run while striking out eight. Cap was held to just five hits, total. John Carroll pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts.

The Franciscan Barons would make a 10 run comeback, as they trailed 10-0 heading into the home half of the third inning. Barons beat the Cougars by the score of 18-17. For the Barons Joshua Costello hit his first home run of his career, a two run shot in the third inning. Austin Horan would deliver a three run home run in the bottom of the 8th to tie this one at 17-17. Then Costello would drive home the winning run in the eighth with a two out double. The Barons would reset after their marathon comeback victory, to face the Cougars in a nonconference seven inning game. Chatham would score three runs in the top of the eight inning, and despite plate a run in the bottom of the eight, Franciscan would fall 8-6.

The Lebanon Valley Dutchmen used a gem of a performance from Kyle Kingsbury in order to secure a. split with Hood College on Sunday afternoon. LVC now sits at 5-3 while the Blazers are now 2-4. In the first inning, Kingsbury navigated a pair of hit-by-pitches to keep the Blazers off the board. In the inning, Kingsbury picked up a pair of strikeouts, giving him 100 punchouts for his career. In the bottom half of the frame, LVC manufactured some offense and scored a pair of runs without registering a hit. Bryan Towers led off by reaching on a Hood error followed by a Conor Smith walk and Chris DeClerico HBP to load the bags. Towers would score on a wild pitch and later DeClerico would come home via a passed ball to give the Dutchmen the quick 2-0 lead. On the bump, Kingsbury continued to roll all game as he tossed seven excellent innings of shutout ball while compiling nine strikeouts and allowing just two hits. He would get more insurance runs in the bottom of the third when Michael Leri launched a moon shot of a homer to left field to double the LVC lead to 4-0. A Ryan Murphy RBI-single in the eighth would officially put away the Blazers and the LVC bullpen shut the door to complete the 5-0 shutout victory.

Coast Guard scored four unanswered runs for a come-from-behind win in the opener and senior Nate Ralph allowed just two hits over six innings and struck out a career-high 12 as the Bears offense exploded for 16 runs and Coast Guard swept Clark 6-4 and 16-9 in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader. The wins are the first two in the career of new head coach Brian Casey. Coast Guard opens NEWMAC play with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2015 when the Bears won their first three conference games. Blake Carroll and Justin Stasiak each had five hits on the day as Coast Guard totaled 26 hits in the doubleheader sweep.

Keystone College appeared on the diamond for the
first time in over a calendar year on Sunday, splitting
with visiting Wilson College in a CSAC doubleheader.
The Giants (1-1) won the opener 9-3 before falling in
the nightcap, 7-6. Wilson moves to 7-1.
Keystone athletics photo

Messiah dropped the opening contest of a road doubleheader at Alvernia University, 6-4, as the second game was suspended in the top of the tenth inning with the two sides knotted up, 10-10. The official result of the second contest is an official tie. Three Falcons contributed run-scoring knocks in the doubleheader-opener, including a two-run double from Billy Davis in the top of the fifth inning. Davis turned in a solid offensive performance in game two, contributing two more RBIs, as the Falcons had six different batters record run-scoring hits.

Washington College opened Centennial Conference play with a doubleheader sweep over Gettysburg on Sunday. The Shoremen won the opener by a score of 9-3 and took the nightcap by a 5-3 margin. The Shoremen improved to 8-2 overall while the Bullets dropped to 0-2. Senior shortstop CJ Gillmer collected his 100th career hit in the opener and then drove in three runs in the second game. The Shoremen scored all of the runs they would need when they exploded for five runs on five hits in the opening frame in the opener. A close game in the nightcap was finally decided when Washington College added an insurance run in the top of the ninth as CJ Gillmer lined a two-out RBI single to right.

Behind eight strong innings from Shaun Cormier, New England College picked up their first win of the year following a 7-4 win over Anna Maria College, Sunday afternoon. Anna Maria was the first team to strike but New England College answered in the top of the third and pushed the sore to 6-3 in the sixth. Anna Maria got within two but that was all for the AMCATS. Matt White came into pitch in the ninth inning get two strikeouts and a ground out to short to seal the victory for the 'Grims. This was the 34th all-time meeting between NEC and Anna Maria, with the AMCats still leading the series 18-16.

Farmingdale State wrapped up their four-game weekend series with Manhattanville this afternoon and split the doubleheader. The Rams earned an 11-3 victory in game one and fell 7-4 in the second game. The Rams (4-0, 3-0) struck in the top of the first inning and added a pair of runs in each of the final two innings as they went on for the 11-3 victory. In game two, Manhattanville jumped out to a 4-0 lead after scoring a run in each of the first four innings. and never trailed posting the 7-4 final. Matthew Careccia led the way for Manhattanville after going 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs batted in.

Curry College started its 2021 season against Becker College with 1-0 and 4-3 victories on Sunday afternoon at the Jack Vallely Diamond. A pitcher's duel between senior Zachary Wensley and Becker's Tevon Johnson stole the show in the first game of the doubleheader. Wensley struck out seven batters in 7.0 scoreless innings while Johnson allowed just one run on three hits while striking out seven. The game's lone run came in the third inning as junior Julian Jaume singled up the middle to plate freshman Ryan Goonan. Wensley picked up his seventh career complete game victory on the hill. Becker went ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the top of the first and Curry chipped away. In the eighth, Jason Leonard singled through the left side to send two runs home to take a 4-3 advantage, the eventual final.

Arcadia University won its second-consecutive series to begin the 2021 season and ran its win-streak to six in the Knights' 8-2 victory over Stevens in the front end of Sunday's doubleheader before falling in game two to cap the weekend, 5-4. The Knights' pitching staff rose to the occasion yet again on Sunday, as game one starter Hunter Bogumil picked up his first win of the season with five innings of one-run ball while the bullpen combined to allow only two earned runs over six innings of work. Ryan Smolen finished the doubleheader 4-for-8 at the plate with a pair of doubles and two runs driven in while Zachary Sekelick hit his first home run of the season with a solo shot in the fourth inning of game one.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology stands 5-3 on the 2021 season after splitting a Sunday doubleheader at home against Earlham College. The Fightin' Engineers pounded out 16 hits and relied on strong pitching to win the opener 8-2. Earlham responded to pick up a 6-2 win in the nightcap. In the opener, Rose-Hulman had three players total three hits each to lead the attack. Brett Tuttle finished 3-5 with one RBI; AJ Ernst was 3-3 with one run, one RBI and one walk; and Josh Mesenbrink was 3-3 with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI and 2 walks. Other key contributors to the offense included Logan Cody with a single, double and an RBI; and Shaine Mitchell with two runs scored. The balanced attack help Ben Yoss improve to 2-0 on the season with a win on the mound. Yoss allowed five hits and struck out three, surrendering just one run. Schuyler Wilcox added 2.2 innings and allowed just one earned run with two strikeouts, before Michael Yager recorded the final three outs with a pair of strikeouts. In the second game, Earlhan relied on home runs from Austin Hatfield and Michael Medley to pace an eight attack in a 6-2 victory. Andy Krajecki had two singles and one walk to lead the Engineers. Colton Couillard-Rodak, Cody and Mitchell each had a double, and Mitchell recorded a stolen base in each game.

Scranton (1-3, 1-3 Landmark) took game one by a score of 8-1 and dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker in game two as they split a doubleheader with the Elizabethtown Blue Jays (3-1, 3-1 Landmark) on Sunday afternoon at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium.Junior left-hander James Gadue (West Hartford, Conn./Hall) tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings and the Royals broke the game open with a four-run fifth en route to the 8-1 victory in game one. Elizabethtown rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to win the nightcap as Andrew Fisher tied the game with a two-run double and Joey Thomas won the game for the hosts with a walk-off single.

Ithaca College made its long-awaited return to Freeman Field on Satuday as the Bombers hosted Elmira College for a non-conference doubleheader and came away with a sweep, 8-0 and 11-1. The victories are the first home wins for second-year head coach David Valesente as IC improves to 3-0 on the season. Shirley Elmira 3-21-21Highlighting Sunday's Game One victory was senior pitcher Buzz Shirley who put up career-high numbers through six innings on the mound. The lefty ace tallied five strikeouts and two walks while only surrendering one hit in the game. That was the fewest amount of hits allowed by Shirley in a single contest over the course of his career thus far. Ithaca finished off its first doubleheader of the year against Elmira with a 11- 1 victory. Junior pitcher Kyle Lambert took the mound for his first start of the season for the Bombers. Lambert started off a bit rocky, allowing a run in the first inning off a couple of doubles before settling in and striking out two batters in the inning. He continued to find success throughout the remainder of the game, tallying six strikeouts over five innings and allowed just three hits and one walk to secure his first win of the season.