PATCHOGUE – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team had a five game overall winning streak and a six game conference run stopped on Sunday with a doubleheader loss at St. Joseph’s-L.I. The Knights suffered a 4-2 loss in the opener, before dropping the backend of the set by a 5-2 score.
Game 1: St. Joseph’s-L.I. 4 – Mount Saint Mary 2
After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning of the opener, the Knights got on the board and knotted the score with a run in the top half of the fourth inning. Blake Keenan knotted the score with his second home run of the season with one out in the frame.
The Golden Eagles moved back in front 2-1 in the home half of the fifth inning when Tyler Crafa drove in a run with a single before the lead grew to 4-1 in the sixth when Lou Doria delivered two runs with a single down the right field line.
Mount Saint Mary cut its deficit to 4-2 in its final at-bat of the opener when Ryan Lutinski drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. The Knights had the tying runs on base in the ninth with two outs, but could not get closer than the final two run deficit.
Mount Saint Mary outhit St. Joseph’s 6-3 in game one, with Steven Mirra going 2-for-3. Keenan scored twice and drove in a run with Nick Rizzo, Steven Bauer and Kevin Edgar recording base hits.
Doria recorded one of three hits for the Gooden Eagles, adding a run scored and two driven in. Tyler Sanderson picked up a hit and scored twice for St. Joseph’s.
Christian Spano suffered the loss in game one, working 5.1 innings. He allowed four runs on just two hits, walking five and striking out two. Nick Zestanakis came on to work 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit and striking out one.
Joseph Murphy earned the win for the Golden Eagles with 7.0 strong innings that included seven strikeouts with Tyler Villez picking up the save after getting the final two outs of the contest.
Game 2: St. Joseph’s 5 – Mount Saint Mary 2
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game two after plating two runs in both the first and fourth innings. Paul Britt drove in the game’s first run with a first inning single, before Anthony Raucci delivered two runs in the fourth with a base hit.
Mount Saint Mary cut its deficit in half in the top of the fifth after stringing together three hits. Anthony Rizzo plated the Mount’s first run with a single that drove in Jack Goodwin and Christopher Introcaso drove home the Mount’s second run with a sacrifice fly.
The Golden Eagles responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth to finish of the scoring in the game. Britt drove in his second run of the game with a two-out double to push St. Joseph’s in front by the final three run deficit.
Mount Saint Mary loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but was unable to get back on the board. Following a two-out walk to Chris McLaren that loaded the bases, Elliot Robles got a fly out to earn his first save of the season.
Hits in game two were even at nine, with Anthony Rizzo leading the way for the Mount with a 3-for-4 effort. John Santana rounded out game two 2-for-4 with Keenan going 1-for-3 with a double. Introcaso rounded out the game with a hit and an RBI.
Raucci paced the Golden Eagles by going 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI with Britt recording two hits and driving in two runs. Louis Fontinha scored twice in the game for St. Joseph’s.
Alexander Maher suffered the loss in game two, working 3.1 innings and allowing three earned runs on five hits. He walked three and fanned one in falling to 0-1 on the season. P.J. Martino earned the win and moved to 4-1 after allowing eight hits and striking out six.
Sunday’s sweep drops Mount Saint Mary to 11-7 overall on the season and to 6-2 in Skyline Conference play.