Niagara Falls, N.Y. – An old fashioned pitchers ensued in Molloy baseball's opening game against the Saints of D'Youville Friday afternoon, but the Lions would come away with a 2-1 victory to improve to 23-16 overall and 12-5 in East Coast Conference play. With the loss, D'Youville falls to 12-28 overall and 6-7 in league play.
 
How It Happened

• After junior Sean Welsh led off the game reaching following an error and advanced to third on the mishap. The Lions capitalized later in the inning when graduate student Aidan Larkin plated Welsh with an RBI ground out to move in front, 1-0.
• Molloy added to its lead, 2-0, in the top of the fourth following a run scoring single from redshirt senior Matthew Gonchar.
• Graduate student Ryan Hynes was perfect through five innings, retiring the first 15 he met at the plate in order.
• The Saints were able to break up perfection in the sixth with runners reaching following an error and a single, eventually getting runners on second and third with two outs.
• Hynes wiggled out of trouble, striking out Garett Wilson to keep D'Youville off the board.
• The home team came right back in the bottom of the seventh cutting the deficit to one, 2-1, after Billy Morris doubled in a run.
• The Saints sought for the game tying run in the ninth putting runners on first and second with its five-hole hitter coming to the plate, but freshman Jayden Patel induced a game ending 4-6-3 double play to secure the victory, 2-1.

Top Performances

• Hynes improved to 4-0 on the campaign tossing seven innings allowing one run on four hits while striking out nine.
• Patel collected his third save of the season pitching the final two innings of shutout baseball surrendering two hits.
• Gonchar led the offense with a career-high four hits while driving in the games winning run.
• Larkin added two hits and an RBI.

Up Next
Molloy continues its series with the Saints Saturday, April 26 with a doubleheader in Niagara Falls, N.Y. First pitch of the twin-bill is slated for 12:00 p.m.