FLUSHING, N.Y. – On a perfect sunny Monday afternoon and with no dark clouds present over Hennekens Stadium, it was home runs that rained off the barrels of the Queens College baseball team that used four blasts to defeat the Mercy College Mavericks in the regular season finale to the score of 10-4 in East Coast Conference action.
With the win, the Knights conclude the regular season with an overall record of 24-15, 15-6 in ECC Play, while the Mavericks moved to 21-23-1 overall, 14-7 in conference play.
Head Coach
Chris Reardon and the Knights clinched the #2 seed in the upcoming ECC Baseball Tournament with the 2-1 series victory over the Mavericks.
Prior to the first pitch, Reardon and the Knights along with Athletic Director
Rob Twible honored graduating seniors
Stephen Castro (Bayside, N.Y.), Julien Arcos (Glenwood, N.Y.), Dylan Hughes (Merrick, N.Y.), Rob Backus (Merrick, N.Y.), and
Louis Antos (West Islip, N.Y) in their annual Senior Day Ceremony.
The Knights' offense tallied 12 hits with four doubles, and four home runs led by four multi-hit performances from Antos
(2-4 AB, 2HR, 4RBIs, 3R), freshman
Matt Filip (2-3 AB, 3R, BB), freshman
Juan De La Rosa (Santo Domingo, D.R.) (2-3 AB, HR, 2RBI, R, BB), and sophomore
Colin Diez (Levittown, N.Y.) (2-3 AB, BB). While five Knights tallied nine RBIs led by Antos's four RBIs, Rosa's two, and freshman
Marc Cisco (Long Island City, N.Y.) (1-3 AB, HR, RBI, 2R, BB), sophomore
Andrew Smith (Hampton Bays, N.Y.) (1-4 AB, 2B, RBI) and sophomore
Reed Hoskins (Freeport, N.Y.) (1-3 AB, RBI, BB).
On the mound the pitching trio of junior
Liam Pulsipher (East Moriches, N.Y.) (1.0 IP, 3H, 3K), Jordan Sanabria(Woodside, N.Y.) (W, 2-1, 4.0 IP, 2H, ER, 6K) and Hughes
(S, 3, 2.0 IP) combined for nine strikeouts and limited the Mavericks to five hits.
Antos tallied his first four RBI performance and 10
th multi-RBI game of the season. It was a special day for Cisco as the rookie broke the most RBIs by a freshman since the 1998 season with his ninth home run of the season to record his team-leading 46
th RBI of the season.
With the battle of the #2 seed on the line, it was the Mavericks who began the game taking an early lead as they rallied with two outs notching three hits and a fielding error to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
But Queens would quickly respond in the home half of the first using four hits to take a 4-3 lead. Junior
Jayson Rodopoulos (Scarsdale, N.Y.) (1-4 AB, 2B, R) wasted no time in looking at pitches as he laced the first pitch for a double down the left-field line before Cisco earned a four-pitch walk to bring up Antos. The West Islip native staring at a 2-1 count laced the fourth pitch of the at-bat for his eighth home run of the season for a three-run blast to right-center field to tie the game 3-3 as the Knights quickly erased their deficit.
Filip would lace his pitch for a double to left field before the Mavericks got two straight outs. Diez would earn a walk to advance Filip in scoring position. Hoskins would give Queens a 4-3 lead with a single to right field to score Filip from second.
Sanabria would work two straight clean innings of work as he retired six straight batters with the Knights holding a 4-3 lead.
Queens would extend the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the third as Filip would advantage of a fielding error to score from third. As Sanabria worked his third cleaning of work in the fourth, the Knights would tack on three more runs in the home half of the fourth.
Cisco began the fourth breaking the freshman RBI record with his ninth home run of the season as he recorded his 46
th RBI of the season to put the Knights up 6-3. Rosa would cap the inning with his sixth home run of the season for a two-RBI blast to put Queens in a commanding lead of 8-3.
After retiring 11 straight batters, Sanabria would give up two hits in the top of the fifth as the Mavericks trimmed the Knights' lead down to 8-4.
In his final at-bat of the season in Flushing to begin the sixth inning, Antos would conclude his spectacular career in Hennekens Stadium with his ninth home run of the season as he rounded the bases for the final time to put the Knights up 9-4.
After Filip knocked in his second double of the season which just missed going over the center-field fence, Smith would cap off the scoring on the afternoon with a RBI double to right field to put Queens up 10-4.
In relief, Hughes would pitch two shutout innings allowing no hits to pick up his third save of the season as Queens clinched the #2 seed for the ECC Baseball Tournament with a 10-4 win.
UP NEXT: Head coach
Chris Reardon and the Knights will now use the next few days to prepare for the ECC Baseball Tournament. More details to follow soon.
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