Box Score UNIONDALE, N.Y. (Apr. 29, 2016) – A late-inning squeeze play brought home the go-ahead and eventual winning run as the Molloy College baseball team dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to Dowling College in game one of a pivotal four-game East Coast Conference series on Friday (Apr. 29) at Mitchel Field.
Molloy (26-15, 10-7 ECC) scored the game's first run in the second inning against Dowling (18-19, 10-7 ECC) and starter Cody McPartland (Miller Place, N.Y.). The Lions loaded the bases with one out on the strength of a hit batter, a walk and a single; junior left fielder
Anthony Galanoudis (Farmingdale, N.Y.) lifted a single to right field to score
Angelo Navetta (Staten Island, N.Y.) and the maroon and white led 1-0. Dowling responded with two runs in the top of the third as both Michael Rizzitello (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) and Michael Richter (Dumont, N.J.) hit run-scoring singles to push the Golden Lions ahead by a 2-1 score.
The Lions, meanwhile, pushed across two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as
Deilyn Guzman (East Hampton, N.Y.) nubbed a McPartland pitch down the first-base line past the glove of Richter. Galanoudis and
Jack McCarty (Huntington, N.Y.) both scored to put Molloy back in front by a 3-2 advantage. Dowling, though, continued to manufacture runs against starting pitcher
Ronald Bauer (Hicksville, N.Y.); in the top of the sixth inning, junior Tyler Piccolo (Sound Beach, N.Y.) hit a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield to bring home Chris Russo (Shirley, N.Y.) and tie the game up at three-all.
The score would stay tied through the seventh inning when Bauer was lifted after throwing 116 pitches. Red-shirt junior
Matt Castaneda (East Meadow, N.Y.) tossed a scoreless eighth inning to keep the game tied as the maroon and white batted in the bottom of the frame. McPartland held the Lions to a 1-2-3 eighth inning, however, as the bats stayed quiet. In the ninth,
Shawn Klotsche (Wantagh, N.Y.) got the first two outs fairly quickly but a single by Tim Going (Islip, N.Y.) extended the inning. Going stole second and then took third on a wild pitch before older brother R.J. Going (Islip, N.Y.) laid down a perfectly executed bunt single on the third-base line to score the go-ahead run. Down a run in the bottom of the frame, Molloy put a runner on thanks to a one-out walk but McPartland navigated through the rest of the frame to close the door on Molloy's rally attempt.
Galanoudis and
Brian Murphy (Elmont, N.Y.) each had a team-high two hits in the effort while Guzman drove in two runs with the double in the fourth inning. Dowling totaled nine hits with six coming against Bauer---who did not factor into the decision while pitching seven innings and surrendering three runs while walking five batters.
Molloy will head to Suffolk County on Saturday (Apr. 30) to continue the four-game series with the Golden Lions in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.
