Garden City, N.Y. - After a slow start, on a Florida road trip, the Queens College baseball team won its first game of the year with a 4-3 triumph over Adelphi on Tuesday.  Jonathan Russell (Boynton Beach, Fla./Park Vista Community) tossed six innings to earn the first win of the year.

The Knights got on the board in the first inning as Danny Muller (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) led off with a single and got into scoring position by stealing second.  Muller advanced to third on a base hit from Joe Salanitri (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) and came in to score on an RBI fielder's choice from Nick LoBello (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin).

Queens extended its lead to 3-0 in the top of the third as they plated a pair of runs.   Frank Duffy (Astoria, N.Y./Forest Hills) led off with a walk.  He moved to second on a groundout and got to third when Salanitri made it to second with a single and a throwing error.  With LoBello up, Panthers' starter Mike Cranston uncorked a wild pitch that scored Duffy to put the Knights up 2-0.  LoBello made the score 3-0 with an RBI single that drove in Salanitri.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Adelphi pushed three runs across in the bottom of the third to even the score at 3-all.  The key hit for the Panthers was an RBI triple from Nick Zito.

The game remained deadlocked at 3-3 until the top of the seventh, when the Knights took the lead for good.  John Eyerman (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) led off the frame with a walk and advanced to second on a throwing error by the pitcher.  He moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Duffy and scored on a sacrifice fly from Muller.

From there, Frank Kaplan (Howard Beach, N.Y./Xaverian) blanked the Panthers over the final three innings to earn the save.  Kaplan pitched out of jams in the seventh and eighth innings to help preserve the win.

Salanitri led the team with three hits and LoBello drove in two of the four runs.  The Knights are off until Friday, when they welcome Le Moyne in or a three-game set over the weekend .  The first pitch on Friday is scheduled for 3:00 PM.