FLEMINGTON, N.J. (Feb. 23, 2020) – The Queens College baseball team ended its weekend venture at Diamond Nation on a sour note Sunday (Feb. 23) as the Knights were bested by Shippensburg by scores of 6-2 and 11-0 in the final doubleheader of a four-game set.
The Knights are now 2-4 on the season while Shippensburg boasts a 4-6 record for the 2020 spring campaign.
Game One: Shippensburg 6, Queens (NY) 2
Queens fell in an early hole on a first-inning home run by Tony Vavaroutsos off of Knights starter
Dimitri Papazoglou as the Raiders jumped in front by a 1-0 score in the opening frame. Shippensburg scored a run in the second inning but QC got that run back on a two-out single off the bat of
Matt Encizo, scoring
Colin Diez to cut the deficit to a 2-1 score. Unfortunately, Vavaroutsos would clobber a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the game away as the Knights would not scratch another run across until the seventh inning. A Diez ground-out scored pinch-runner
Jayson Rodopoulos and Queens had runners at first and second with two out and the tying run on deck before Raiders third baseman Jacob Pollock came on to pitch and induced
Eric Roubal to line out to left field to end the game.
Joe O'Rourke had two of QC's five hits in the contest, including a lead-off double in the top of the seventh inning. Papazoglou threw four-and-a-third innings while yielding eight hits and one strikeout while
Robert Amato pitched a scoreless seventh frame for the Knights. Kiernan Higgins tossed six four-hit innings to pick up the win for the Raiders.
Game Two: Shippensburg 11, Queens (NY) 2
Danny Gargano debuted for the Knights in the second game of the day for Queens and threw two scoreless frames before Zack Zoller's two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning gave the Raiders a 2-0 edge. Shippensburg scored three runs in the frame and scored two in the fourth on solo homers by Zoller and Justin Darden. After a two-run triple by Pollock and a two-run double by Lake Lloyd broke the game open in the fifth inning, the Raiders eventually built an 11-0 lead into the seventh inning. Rodopoulos smashed a two-run home run to left field to break up the shutout, but the Knights could not score any more runs in the contest.
Teovaldo Estevez was 2-for-2 in a pinch-hit appearance for the Knights and Roubal added a hit in the effort. For the Raiders, Chris Horst pitched five two-hit innings and struck out three batters to earn the win.
Queens returns to action on Saturday (Feb. 29) with a 1 p.m. contest versus the host Nyack College Warriors.
