Mount Saint Mary Baseball Suffers Two Losses

By Steven Merritt

FISHKILL – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team suffered its first two losses of the season after being swept by SUNY New Paltz on Saturday afternoon. The Knights dropped a tight 5-3 contest in the nine-inning game one and then lost a 10-2 game in the seven inning game two contest.

Game 1: SUNY New Paltz 5 – Mount Saint Mary 3
The Hawks lead off the first two innings with doubles but failed to push a run across after hitting into two inning ending double plays. The Knights responded with a two out triple in the second inning by Ryan Lutinski that drove in Tom Huvane for the first run of the contest.
Following Steven Mirra reaching on an error in the third, John Santana laced a double into the right-center field gap to give the Knights a two run advantage. New Paltz got on the board in top of the fourth after Matt McGee led off with a double to center and Danny Campbell drove him in two batters later.

The Mount pushed their lead back to two runs after Huvane was hit by his second pitch of the day with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth. Campbell once again drove in McGee in the sixth to cut the Knights lead back to one.

The Hawks put the first crooked number of the day on the board as four straight hitters got on base, including RBI doubles by McGee and Justin Ganca. Campbell also drove in his third run of the contest to give the Hawks a 5-3 advantage.

The Mount could not push another run across as it suffered its first loss of the season in the first game of the twinbill. Sal Rizzo started on the mound for the Knights as he finished with 5.1 innings pitched, five hits, one earned run and two strikeouts in the no-decision.

Christian Spano took the loss in relief for the Knights and Michael Delio earned the win for the Hawks in relief while Ryan Votypka closed the contest for his first save of the season.

Santana added a 3-for-5 day including a RBI at the dish.

Game 2: SUNY New Paltz 10 – Mount Saint Mary 2
New Paltz broke the game open early as the Hawks hung six runs on the board in the top of the second. The Hawks had three doubles in the inning and drove in five of the six runs in the inning.

New Paltz added a seventh run in the third after Ryan Frost’s RBI double and then added two runs in the fourth, including a RBI triple by Ganca.

The Knights finally got on the board following Nick Rizzo’s two RBI triple in the bottom of the fifth. The Hawks scored its tenth run of the contest on an infield single by Campbell in the top of the seventh.

Santana took the loss for the Knights as he allowed seven runs in three innings. Anthony Amoroso earned the win with four scoreless innings for New Paltz. Rizzo and Mirra were the only two Knights that recorded a hit in the contest.

Saturday’s losses push the Knights to 2-2 overall on the season. The Knights now travel to Port Charlotte, Fla. to take part in the Snowbird Baseball Classic. The first of five games in Florida will be on Saturday, March 16 against Ohio Wesleyan at 11:00 a.m.