Mount Baseball Drops Twinbill To USMMA

By Steven Merritt

FISHKILL – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team was swept in a Skyline doubleheader against the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday afternoon at Dutchess Stadium. The Knights dropped a tight 3-1 contest in game one and then lost 8-1 in the nightcap. Junior Nick Rizzo finished with three hits in the two games combined.
USMMA 3 – Mount Saint Mary 1

Merchant Marine threatened in the top of the second inning after Matt Mundorf led off the inning reaching base on an error. He was quickly released after he was caught stealing. Griffin Reddeck then walked and Joshua Costlow followed it up with a single putting a runner in scoring position with one out. After a groundout to second base, Christian Spano got a fly out to end the threat.

The Knights responded with a run of their own in the third inning after Anthony Rizzo led off with a double to the left center gap. Following a balk, Jack Goodwin drove in Rizzo with a RBI groundout to shortstop.

Both teams were held off the board until the seventh inning when Merchant Marine got on the board for the first time. After a Costlow leadoff single, Colin Baker laid down a sacrifice bunt to push Costlow into scoring position. Garrett Aichele drove in Costlow with a triple to right field to end Spano’s outing. Jesse Reinebold knocked in Aichele with a sacrifice fly to give the Mariners its first lead of the contest.

USMMA added an insurance run in the eighth after Aichele drove in his second run of the day on a RBI single to left field. Kyle Cunningham entered in the ninth inning for the Mariners and threw a scoreless inning to pick up his fifth save of the season.

Spano took the tough loss as he finished with 6.1 innings pitched, allowing two runs on four hits. Michael DiGiovanni added 1.2 scoreless innings of relief for the Mount. Joe Raab picked up the win for USMMA, throwing eight innings and allowing one run on five hits and struck out 10.

N. Rizzo finished 2-for-4 on the day while A. Rizzo was 2-for-2 with the lone RBI for the Knights. Aichele finished 2-for-4 with two RBI while Cunningham, Costlow and Baker each had two hits for the Mariners as USMMA outhit the Mount 10-5.

USMMA 8 – Mount Saint Mary 1
The nightcap started as a pitchers duel as neither team could crack the scoreboard over the first three innings. Both teams combined for two total hits following three innings of play.
The Mariners broke the game open over the next three innings as they scored all eight runs over that period. Cunningham and Costlow both had RBI singles in the fourth inning while Cunningham and Mundorf each added RBI singles in the fifth inning.

Vincenzo Alteri added a RBI infield single in the sixth inning to add to the Mariners lead. The Knights finally got on the board on Braden Perry’s leadoff double that the center fielder lost in the sun. After a Steven Mirra single, Liam Merlin singled through the middle to get the Mount on the board.

Matthew Borriello got his first start of his Mount career as he took the loss after pitching 3.1 innings, allowing three runs on three hits and struck out four. Andrew Spinnenweber earned the win for USMMA as he finished with a complete game, allowing one run on six hits while striking out 13.

Six different players had a hit for the Mount while Cunningham, Alteri and Reinebold each had two hits for USMMA and Cunningham had two RBI for the contest.