FLUSHING, N.Y. (Mar. 23, 2019) – The Queens College baseball team took the first game of an ECC doubleheader with Mercy College on Saturday (Mar. 23) and won the second game on an epic comeback with 17 runs over two innings of play to take down the Mavericks at Hennekens Stadium. QC won by final scores of 8-4 and 20-10 to improve to 11-7-1 overall and 2-1 in ECC play.
Game One: Queens (NY) 8, Mercy 4
The Mavericks took the lead in the second inning on a double play that scored Adonis Garcia, and Mercy extended the lead in the top of the third inning as Anthony Murphy clobbered a two-run home run to right field. The Mavericks led 3-0 but Queens scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to draw within a run at 3-2. After
Joe O'Rourke drew a bases-loaded walk,
Eric Roubal singled through the left side of the infield to bring home
Jon Strauss and get Queens within a run.
Queens would even the score in the bottom of the fifth inning on a
Louis Antos single with Strauss scoring on an error. After Joseph Sadallah singled in a run in the top of the sixth inning to give Mercy, Queens took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning.
After two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth,
Nick Font reached on a throwing error and made it to second base. Strauss took an 0-2 offering into deep center field to tie the game with a run-scoring triple;
Ron Linsalato then singled on the very next pitch to give Queens its first lead of the afternoon at 5-4. The Knights would tack on three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on a pinch-hit RBI double by
Jayson Rodopoulos as well as RBI singles by Font and
Jesse Spellman.
Dennis Buckstein pitched a gritty six innings, surrendering two earned runs on eight hits while striking out eight Mavericks to pick up the win.
Kevin Kochen twirled two sensational innings of no-hit relief with two strikeouts and
James McGee slammed the door in the ninth inning. Queens clobbered the Mavs' pitchers to the tune of 13 total hits, with five players scoring multi-hit games. Seven players also contributed an RBI in the victory.
Game Two: Queens (NY) 20, Mercy 10
Mercy took an early 3-0 lead on Queens in the first inning with Adonis Garcia and Ethan McMenamy collecting run-scoring singles to plate the Mavericks' three runs on QC starter
Michael Lamneck. Garcia also tallied a solo home run in the third inning and a grand slam in the fourth to extend the Mavs' lead to a 9-0 advantage. Queens, meanwhile, had difficulty in solving Mercy's James Jakuba as the Mavericks' starter allowed just two hits over his first three-plus innings of work.
The Knights put together the makings of a rally in the fourth inning, as QC loaded the bases with one out.
Ronmel Ocampo singled on a pop fly to right field, Rodopoulos drew a walk and
Brian Watters was hit by a pitch to set the table for the hosts to cut into the deficit. Font then skied a ball to right field that glanced off the glove of Garcia to bring home two runs and Strauss sent the very next pitch into deep right-center field for a two-run double. After Linsalato singled up the middle to bring home QC's fifth run of the inning, Antos tattooed a 1-0 offering from Jakuba over the left-field wall for a two-run homer that brought Queens within a 9-7 deficit. That would be the end of the Knights' offense in the inning, however as Jakuba got O'Rourke to strike out and then induced Ocampo to line out to right field to end the inning.
James Dieguez launched a solo home run off of
Brandon Hoskins in the top of the fifth to put Mercy back up by three runs at 10-7, but Font launched a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the frame to get the teams level at 10-10. After QC loaded the bases on hits by Strauss and Linsalato followed by a four-pitch walk to Antos, O'Rourke drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to plate Strauss and give Queens its first lead of the game at 11-10. Roubal then ripped a two-strike double to left field to plate an additional two runs and put QC further ahead by a 13-10 margin. A sacrifice fly by Ocampo and an RBI single by Rodopoulos furthered the lead for the Knights and Font doubled in two more runs and O'Rourke cleared the bases on a pop fly single to left-center; the Knights sent 17 batters in total to the plate and scored 13 total runs with nine hits and five walks against Jakuba and three other Mavericks pitchers.
Hoskins picked up the win in relief, going three innings while yielding one run and striking out three batters. Every QC batter collected a hit with Font driving in five runs and O'Rourke plating four on the day.
Queens and Mercy conclude their regular-season series on Sunday (Mar. 24) in Dobbs Ferry at 12 p.m.
