NYACK, N.Y. (Feb. 23, 2019) -
Dennis Buckstein tossed five effective innings to lift the Queens College baseball team to an 8-4 victory in the first game of a doubleheader with Nyack on Saturday (Feb. 23); the Knights then pummeled out 16 hits in the nightcap of the two-game set to claim a 13-11 victory over the Warriors and improve to 2-0-1 on the season.
Game One: Queens (NY) 8, Nyack 4
Buckstein was on fire for the Knights from the pitching mound, striking out eight Nyack batters over his five innings pitched while surrendering just one run on three hits. That run came in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Austin Fischer; Queens scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning on a home run by
Louis Antos and an RBI groundout by
Ron Linsalato. The Knights would coast thanks to a four-run fifth inning with a two-run double by
Eric Roubal that also scored a third runner on account of an error. Nyack scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against
John Rodopoulos, but
Kevin Kochen slammed the door with two-plus effective innings of work for the save as the Knights tacked on two more runs in the eighth on back-to-back singles by Antos and
Jon Strauss.
Antos went 4-for-4 with two RBIs as Roubal and Strauss both collected three hits in the victory.
Anthony Scotti also had a two-hit game for Queens in the win.
Game Two: Queens (NY) 13, Nyack 11
Nyack opened the scoring in the second game against QC starter
Dylan Hughes as Matthew Johnson tripled home a run in the first inning. Queens got a two-run second inning thanks to a ground-rule double from
Jayson Rodopoulos and an RBI groundout off the bat of
Kevin Cavataio. After Nyack scored the tying run in the bottom of the second inning, the Knights scored eight runs over the next three innings to claim a 10-2 lead. A home run by Scotti in the third got things going with
Joe O'Rourke driving in another run in that inning with a single. Scotti, Roubal and Strauss singled home runs in the fourth inning (around a run-scoring wild pitch) and Strauss collected another RBI hit in the fifth with O'Rourke drawing a bases-loaded walk.
Nyack scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning off of QC pitcher
Bryan Krolikowski, who had come on in relief of Hughes and would eventually pick up the win.
Brian Watters drove home a run in the sixth inning with
Matt Riselvato and Linsalato knocking in runs on extra-base hits in the seventh inning.
Jack Palma locked the door with four innings of relief in which he struck out seven Warriors batters to seal the win.
Six Knights---Cavataio, Linsalato, Roubal, Scotti, Strauss and Watters---collected two hits in the win for Queens.
The Knights will begin their annual Florida spring trip on Mar. 4 with a contest against Concordia (NY) at Santaluces Athletic Complex in Lake Worth, Fla.
