Bellerose, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team earned a split on Saturday at St. Joseph's-Brooklyn and in the process earned a berth in the 2016 Skyline Conference Championship. The Knights dropped game one 11-1 and rebounded for a 6-3 game two win. Freshman Tom Huvane (Eastchester, N.Y.) led the offense with three hits in the Knights' victory.
 
In the game two win, the Knights plated four runs in the top of the second inning and tacked on a run in the third to open a 5-0 lead. Rob Peccerillo (Staten Island, N.Y.) drove in Huvane to open the scoring in the second and Louie Rivera (Linden, N.J.) drove in a pair of runs with a double. Jimmy Papineau (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.) closed out the scoring in the big second with a run scoring single.
 
Huvane added to the Mount Saint Mary lead with a single to center field that delivered Blake Keenan (Fishkill, N.Y.) to give the Knights a five run cushion early in game two. Mount Saint Mary went on to expand its lead to six runs in the fifth when Vincenzo Pepe (Middletown, N.Y.) singled home Keenan.
 
The Bears would close the gap with a run in the home half of the fifth on a Brian Luebcke home run and got a run closer in the sixth on a run scoring groundout. St. Joseph's went on to load the bases with one out in the seventh, but managed just one run.
 
Huvane led five Knights with multiple hits in game two, going 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Matt Cahill (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) and Papineau each went 2-for-4, with Pepe and Pecerillo also picking up a pair of safeties. Cahill, Keenan and Rivera all doubled in the game with Keenan leading the team with two runs scored.
 
John Condon recorded three hits in game two for the Bears with Luebcke and Brian Schwartz each scoring a run and driving in a run.
 
Junior Kevin Duffy (Wallingford, Conn.) picked up his fifth win of the season in game two, working 5.0 innings and fanning two. He allowed one earned run on six hits in the outing. Rosario DiLorenzo suffered the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits in 3.0 innings.
 
In game one, the Knights were held to just three hits and after jumping in front 1-0 in the top of the first, saw the Bears erupt for five runs in the second and two runs each in the third, fourth and sixth innings. St. Joseph's totaled four hits in the big second, including a run scoring single from Francis Rapp.
 
The Bears pounded out 14 hits in the opener, led by a 3-for-4 effort from Rapp who added a run and an RBI. Luebcke doubled twice in game one and scored three times with Nicholas LoPrinzi going 3-for-3 with two runs and three RBI.
 
Cahill doubled in game one, with Peccerillo and Rivera each adding base hits for the Knights. Cahill scored the team's only run of the game with Kristopher Fragomeni (Beacon, N.Y.) driving in the team's lone run.
 
Senior Chris Wolfe (Beacon, N.Y.) suffered the complete game loss, allowing eight earned runs on 14 hits. He fanned three and walked one in falling to 2-4 on the season. Luebcke picked up his sixth win of the season, allowing one run on three hits.
 
Saturday's split moves Mount Saint Mary to 14-24 overall and to 8-8 in conference play. Conference Championship information will be announced when it becomes available.

Follow the Knights on Twitter@MSMCKnights and on Flickr