POMONA, N.Y. – On Friday afternoon the Queens College baseball team returned to East Coast Conference (ECC) postseason play for the second time in two seasons as the #4 seed but faced a tall task ahead of them as they went up against nationally ranked #15 and #1 seed St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans and ECC pitcher of the year Alex Mack in the ECC Baseball Championship semifinal best of three series in Pomona, New York at Palisades Credit Union Park.
The Knights fell 16-0 in game one as they were shut out just for the second time this season. Both shutouts coming against the Spartans.
The loss moves the Knights to 14-12 overall, while the Spartans improve to 24-3.
The Knights were held to nine hits with freshman
Juan Vasquez (Queens Village, N.Y.) (2-2 AB) paving the way with his second multi-hit performance of the season, while seven players knocked in singles. The Knights left 10 runners on bases with the Spartans defense allowing only four runners in scoring position.
Going up against the conference pitcher of the year Mack, the Knights looked to put the Spartans under pressure early on as freshmen
Reed Hoskins (Freeport, N.Y.) (1-5 AB) singled to left field with one out. But the Knights were unable to make any further inroads as Mack got the next batters to end the opening frame of the game.
Red-shirt junior
Dylan Hughes (Merrick, N.Y.) earned his second postseason start on the mound as he looked to give the Knights a good start. After getting the first batter to fly out to right field, he would walk the next batter as the Spartans put their first runner on base. But he would get out of the inning unscathed with a strikeout and a grounder to shortstop.
In the top of the second inning the Knights would put another runner on base with one out as freshmen
Nick Burke (North Babylon, N.Y.) (1-3 AB) singled to shortstop but once again they were unable to advance a runner further as Burke was left stranded on second base.
The Spartans would open the scoring book on a solo shot to right-center to lead 1-0 after two innings of play. The home side would extend their advantage to 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning to end Hughes's day on the mound.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, with sophomore reliever
Dean Fazah (Queens, N.Y.) struggling with his location, the Knights were ultimately hurt by three fielding errors as the Spartans batted around posting nine runs on six hits to effectively put the game away from the Knights as the score bloomed to 12-0 after four complete innings of play.
The Knights would go onto drop game one of the series to the final score of 16-0 putting them one loss away from ending their season.
UP NEXT: In a best of three ECC Semifinal series, the Knights turn to All-Conference honoree sophomore
Liam Pulsipher (East Moriches, N.Y.) in game two as they look to force a game three on Saturday (May 15) with a spot to the ECC Finals on the line. First pitch of game two slated for noon start time. Game three
(if necessary) will start 30 minutes later following the conclusion of game two.
All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the
ECC Network website and the ECC Network app on Apple and Android mobile devices and also on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku OTT streaming devices. To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow
@ECCSports. To see video highlights from the final series, follow
@ECCSportsNet on Twitter. Tournament recaps, live stats, box scores, and all other pertinent tournament information will also be available on www.eccsports.org at the tournament central web page.
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