Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team extended its winning streak to six games and completed a four-game sweep of St. Joseph's-Brooklyn with 8-1 and 5-1 victories over the Bears on Sunday. Anthony Pacifico (Newburgh, N.Y.) worked 8.0 innings in the opener to earn the win and Ben Crowley (Highland Mills, N.Y.) drove in two runs in game two.
Game 1: Mount Saint Mary 8 – St. Joseph's-Brooklyn 1
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning of Sunday's opener, the Mount pulled in front for good in the game with three runs in the home half of the fourth inning. Devin Tait (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Joe Stewart (Valley Stream, N.Y.) recorded one-out singles and advanced on a wild pitch before Liam Merlin (Reading, Mass.) got the Knights on the board with an infield single. Stewart pushed the Mount in front 2-1 after stealing home and Michael DiGiovanni (Shirley, N.Y.) delivered Robert Brust (Shirley, N.Y.) with a single to right center.
Mount Saint Mary extended its lead to 6-1 in the fifth with three more tallies. Jack Goodwin (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) got things started with a single and promptly stole second before scoring on a single from Tait to push the Knights in front 4-1. Tait and Stewart added the other runs with both scoring on balks.
The Knights closed out their scoring in the game with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Merlin singled home Tait in the seventh to push the Knights in front 7-1 and Anthony Franco (Franklin Square, N.Y.) crossed with the team's final run on a run scoring groundout off the bat of Dominick Marzigliano (Highland Mills, N.Y.) in the eighth.
Tait finished the opener 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI with Merlin wrapping up game one 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Stewart scored twice for the Knights and stole a pair of bases with Goodwin and
Merlin also swiping a pair of bags.
After allowing a run in the first, Pacifico settled in to work 8.0 strong innings as he improved to 2-0 on the season. He allowed four hits to the Bears and struck out five.
Game 2: Mount Saint Mary 5 – St. Joseph's-Brooklyn 1
The Knights did all their scoring in game two in the fourth frame when they strung together four hits. Michael Paolo (Milton, N.Y.) delivered Coleman Barnes (New Hampton, N.Y.) with a sacrifice fly to start the scoring ahead of a run scoring single from Adam Leone (Wallingford, Conn.) that gave the Mount a 2-0 lead.
Mount Saint Mary doubled its lead when Crowley shot a two-run triple down the right field line and scored the team's final run when Justin Maldonado (Cold Spring, N.Y.) tripled him home.
Crowley finished game two 2-for-3 with a run and a pair of RBI with Leone, Jaiden Bonet (Bronx, N.Y.) and Cullen Roper (Stratford, Conn.) adding hits and runs scored in the game.
Stewart started game two and worked 3.0 shutout frames with DiGiovanni coming on to earn the win with 3.0 more clean frames. DiGiovanni allowed one hit and struck out one in his first win of the season.
Sunday's sweep pushes Mount Saint Mary to 8-5 overall and 6-4 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a league tilt with Manhattanville scheduled for Wednesday. First pitch in Newburgh is set for 3:30 p.m.
