Bronx, NY - The University of Mount Saint Vincent's baseball team looked to continue their winning ways against the Skyline Conference on Sunday when they hosted the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Clemente Park. After a split against Old Westbury and a sweep over Maritime, the Dolphins were looking to take one of two from the Mariners, but a late inning comeback by USMMA resulted in a sweep to close out the week of play. The double header results put the Dolphins at 11-16 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
It was all Mariners in game one. The visitors exploded for 21 runs, scoring in each of the first six innings of action, including an eight run sixth inning. The Dolphins offense came from graduate
Eric Zimmermann and sophomore
Will Granata, who both drove in runs on sacrifice flies in the bottom half of the first inning.
Game two featured fantastic baseball by the Dolphins for the majority of the contest. Senior captain
Sean Kennedy set the tone on the bump for UMSV, who allowed just two earned runs while scattering six hits in 6.1 impressive innings.
The Mariners jumped out to an early two run lead in the top of the first inning - but as Kennedy then shut down their offense, the Dolphins bats woke up. Things started off in the third inning when Porto walked a one out walk and showcased his speed by stealing both second and third. This led to an RBI single from sophomore
Johnny Brucato, who cut USMMA's lead in half. The following inning saw sophomore
Joshua McCormick record one of his two hits of the afternoon and subsequently stole a base to get in scoring position. The lower third of the UMSV lineup came together to tie the game, as
Drew Knight's ground out moved McCormick to third, which was followed by an RBI single from backstop
Peter Pannullo.
The base-to-base success didn't stop there. Freshman
Zach Turko singled to right field, advancing Pannullo to third. The senior would then go on to cross the plate when Porto recorded a sacrifice fly. Brucato would pick up his second RBI of the day when his single brought home Turko, giving his team a two run edge after four.
The Mariners would take advantage of mistakes from the Dolphins, which would propel them to the win. They cut UMSV's lead to one off a pass ball and wild pitch from junior
Aidan Cardenas, but the southpaw would regain the momentum for his team when he picked off USMMA's base runner to close out the top half of the seventh. Sophomore
Jake Bland impressed in the final two innings of action, but three Dolphins errors and a passed ball would result in a pair of runs scoring, with the Dolphins failing to regain the lead in their final two at-bats of the afternoon.
UMSV returns to non-conference play this week, as they challenge Vassar College and SUNY New Paltz on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
