The Queens College baseball team fought hard in a three-game East Coast Conference series against Dowling College, as the Knights pushed two contests to extra innings. The Golden Lions swept Saturday's twinbill in Brookhaven, N.Y., by scores of 2-1 (8 inn.) and 5-1. Queens tied Monday's contest at Ray Metski Field at 4-all in the bottom of the ninth inning, before succumbing by a 6-4 count in the 11th stanza.
Saturday, Game 1: Dowling 2, Queens 1 (8 inn.)
The two teams played scoreless baseball through the first seven innings, before QC broke the ice with a run in its half of the eighth. Sophomore Mike Shada (Holtsville, N.Y.) led off the inning with a walk, and moved up 90 feet on junior James Casella's (Oceanside, N.Y.) sacrifice bunt. Shada then advanced to third on a failed pickoff attempt, and scored on a squeeze bunt by freshman C.J. Gerdowsky (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to put the Knights on the board.
Sophomore Matthew Cascello (Staten Island, N.Y.) was the tough-luck loser on the mound for Queens, going the distance while scattering seven hits and one walk, while striking out two.
Saturday, Game 2: Dowling 5, Queens 1
The lone Knights run came in the top of the sixth inning, when Shada's one-out single up the middle plated junior Rob Bernardo (Staten Island, N.Y.; 1-for-3, SB).
Gerdowsky and junior Anthony Mazzella (Wantagh, N.Y.) each rapped one hit for QC in the contest.
Monday: Dowling 6, Queens 4 (11 inn.)
Gerdowsky and junior Danny Muller (No. Babylon, N.Y.; 2-for-4, BB) provided run-scoring singles in the bottom of the second inning for the Knights, plating Mazzella (1-for-4) and sophomore Chris Ramanauskas (Staten Island, N.Y.), respectively, to put the hosts up 2-1.
Dowling took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning, before Muller came home in the bottom half of the frame on sophomore Joe Salanitri's (W. Islip, N.Y.) RBI groundout to knot things up at 3-3.
The Golden Lions scored a single run in the top of the eighth to grab a 4-3 advantage, before Queens tied things up once more off the DC closer in the bottom of the ninth. Shada walked to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Gerdowsky and came home when pinch-hitter, junior Danny Herzog (Boca Raton, Fla.) reached on an infield error.
Head coach Tom Sowinski's Knights are back in ECC action Tuesday afternoon, when they travel to Pomona, N.Y., for a 3:30 p.m. first pitch against St. Thomas Aquinas College at Provident Bank Park.
