Ft. Pierce, FL - The College of Mount Saint Vincent's baseball team continued their spring trip down in Fort Pierce today against the Franciscan University Barons and were looking to extend their winning streak to six games. Thanks to some timely hitting and a strong bullpen presence, the Dolphins came away victorious 12-11 in this barn burner to continue their winning ways and bring their overall record to 6-2.
The Dolphins started off hot with a two RBI single from sophomore catcher Jason Albert to put the Dolphins up 2-0 in the first inning. The Barons would respond with five unanswered runs in the next three innings to take a 5-2 lead. The Dolphins weren't done scoring yet, as they scored one run in the top of the 5th inning to cut the lead to 5-3 courtesy of a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior infielder Engers Marte. The Dolphins would tack on another four runs in the 6th inning to take a 7-5 lead.
Graduate student Eric Zimmermann would triple to drive in one, and would later be driven in by a single off the bat of freshman Drew Knight to tie the ball game. Marte would come through in a huge way for the Dolphins two batters after Knight, hitting a two-run moonshot to give the Dolphins a two run cushion in the 6th inning. Next inning the Dolphins tacked on two more runs to extend their lead to 9-5 courtesy Zimmermann and Knight yet again, both hitting RBI singles in a big spot in the game for the Dolphins.
The Barons wouldn't go away lightly however, scoring six runs in the final three innings to make the game interesting late. The Dolphins would clap back at the Barons scoring efforts in the eighth and ninth innings, scoring three runs of their own. In the eighth inning it would be the bottom of the Dolphins lineup coming through in the clutch. Freshman Johnny Brucato would hit an RBI single, scoring Marte and then two batters later Marte would from a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Dom Porto to extend the Dolphins lead to 11-6 at the time. In the ninth, senior Jake Pierre would join the Dolphins scoring efforts, hitting an RBI triple which would end up being the game-winning hit as the Barons would attempt a comeback in the bottom portion of the inning scoring three runs of their own.
The Dolphins prevailed by a final score of 12-11, thanks to some timely hitting in the clutch and senior pitcher Aidan Rice picking up the save for the Dolphins. The Dolphins have an off-day tomorrow before they are back in action on Wednesday, March 15 in Fort Pierce, Florida to take on the Earlham College Quakers.
CMSV Sports Information Intern Conor Pietrowski is the author of this article
