Mercy Beats St. Thomas Aquinas on Day Two of ECC Baseball Championship, 5-0
Mercy Beats St. Thomas Aquinas on Day Two of ECC Baseball Championship, 5-0
The Mercy College baseball team faced a familiar foe in Game Three of the East Coast Conference Baseball Championship— St. Thomas Aquinas. The Mavericks swept the Spartans in a five-game series to end the regular season and clinch the final playoff spot, and these two teams faced each other again on Friday morning in an elimination game that saw the Mercy nine collect their sixth straight win over the STAC, 5-0.
The fourth-seeded Mavericks (19-27) scored all five runs in the bottom of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Michael Ferrante (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) walked to begin the inning. He advanced to second base by eluding the tag on a groundball to second off the bat of Ken Mundy (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream North). Mundy reached safely on the play. Matt Walsh (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peters Boys) and Graig Lauricella (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) recorded back-to-back walks, which forced Ferrante home.
Two batters later, Justin Muscarella (Plainedge,
N.Y./
Island Trees) repeated his clutch hitting with his second triple
in as many days, this one clearing the bases and giving Mercy a 4-0
lead. The Mavericks added a fifth run on a sacrifice fly from
Andrew Bock (Malverne, N.Y./Valley
Stream North) that plated Muscarella.
Starting pitcher Kenny Tyson (Miami, Fla./Ulster C.C.) went the distance for the Mavericks to record the shutout victory. It was his fourth complete game of the season. Tyson allowed only two hits while striking out six. For the game, he allowed only three Spartans to reach base, one each in the second, third, and sixth innings. The runner in the second inning reached on a walk and was erased on a steal attempt by Mercy backstop Marc Dern (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream North).
#3 St. Thomas Aquinas is now eliminated from the three-day championships, held at the Dowling College Athletic Complex in Brookhaven, N.Y. Mercy advances in the double-elimination tournament to the 3:00 p.m. game today, against the winner of the #1 C.W. Post- #2 Molloy game, which begins at noon.
