Cary, N.C. – The Molloy baseball team split a doubleheader in the DII Challenge vs. Cancer Friday at the USA Baseball Training Complex. The Lions defeated Franklin Pierce, 10-5, and fell to Slippery Rock, 18-6. The maroon and white moved to 6-3.

Game One:  Molloy 10, Franklin Pierce 5

• Senior James Messina, who was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and an RBI, scored on a wild pitch to put the Lions ahead 1-0 in the first.
• The Ravens evened the score, 1-1, in the top of the second.
• Molloy plated four runs in the bottom of the second to take a 5-1 lead. Junior Patrick Hoffman started the scoring with an RBI double. Junior Peter Theodorellis, who tallied three hits, scored two runs, and drove in one run, added an RBI single, and senior Sean Hogan, who tallied two hits and drove in four runs, concluded the rally with a two-run single to right.
• Franklin Pierce scored one run in the third, fourth, and fifth innings to cut the maroon and white's lead to 5-4.
• In the bottom half of the fifth, Molloy used a five-run frame to extend its advantage to 10-4. Redshirt sophomore Thomas Brady and Messina hit RBI singles to make it 7-4. Then, Hogan hit a two-RBI single and a third run scored on an error to put the Lions up 10-4.
• The Ravens plated one run in the seventh.
• Sophomore Christopher Wiercinski threw 4.2 innings,  gave up one run, on one hit, and struck out two batters to improve to 2-0 on the year.

Game Two: Slippery Rock 18, Molloy 6

• The Rock plated seven runs in the first and three in the second to jump out to a 10-0 lead.
• Slippery Rock hit back-to-back home runs in the third to extend their advantage to 12-0.
• Hogan hit a sacrifice fly, which scored senior Michael  Nacinovich to make it 12-1 in the fifth.
• After Slippery Rock increased its lead to 13-1 in the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Nicholas DeMicco hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth.
• Sophomores Vincent Pecora, Anthony E. Vano, and Robert Iadanza  scored on wild pitches to make it 17-5 in the seventh.
• Senior Matthew Imbrogno added a sacrifice fly in the ninth, which scored Iadanza.
• Theodorellis and junior Jake McCarthy extended their hitting streaks to nine games.

Up Next

• The maroon and white continues the DII Challenge vs. Cancer tomorrow, March 7 against Clarion. The game with the Golden  Eagles is slated for 9:30 a.m.