Mavericks take a pair from D'Youville College

Recap, photo courtesy of Medaille College

Game two triumph was of the comeback variety

BUFFALO, NY - The Medaille Mavericks Baseball team wrung out their uniforms and tried to stay dry as they prepared for their afternoon tilt with crosstown rival D'Youville College.  A handful of rainouts and postponements has complicated the blue and gold schedule this week, but they were able to find a playable field in the form of Canisius College's turf facility.

GAME 1

Peter Grunzweig (Buffalo, NY, CSAT) was tabbed with the game one start.  He looked to give the Mavericks quality innings and a chance to win like he always seems to do; a stopper of sorts on the bump.

The Spartans tried to spoil the day for Grunzweig in the bottom of the first inning, as they bombarded the junior hurler with two quick runs. First baseman Travis Macrides and catcher Patrick Mulligan snuck singles through the Medaille infield, matching RBI singles respectively to produce an early (2-0) lead for D'Youville.

Medaille wasted no time answering back, as in the top of the second Ryan Wojcinski (North Tonawanda, NY, Cardinal O'Hara) cracked a single to right field to bring in sophomore Greg Power (Hicksville, NY, Hicksville), thus cutting the lead in half (2-1).

Later in the top portion of the second, Evan Dunning (Ilion, NY, Central Valley) reached on a fielder's choice, nabbing an RBI on the play as Wojcinski rounded from second on an error by the Spartans' second baseman.

The game would remain knotted at two until the later frames, where the Mavericks took their first lead of the contest. In the top of the fifth, Dominick Teoli (Niagara Falls, NY, St. Joe's) reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Dunning on the back half of the play. This marked the second time in the opening game of the doubleheader that the blue and gold were able to manufacture runs on fielder's choices.

That (3-2) lead would eventually hold as Grunzweig stifled the D'Youville offense from the first inning on.  The junior's complete game effort pushed his record here in 2018 to (2-3) as Medaille took the first game of the double dip.

GAME 1 STATS
Stephen Kemp (Rochester, NY, Brighton): 1 for 3, BB
Power: 1 for 3, R
Wojcinski: 1 for 3, R, RBI
Dunning: R, RBI, BB
Grunzweig (WP, 2-3): 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R (ER), BB, 5 K

GAME 2

Sal Carroccia (Lackawanna, NY, St. Francis) was given the ball for the Mavericks in the nightcap.  Similar to Grunzweig, he was put by behind the eight-ball by an early Spartan attack as with two runners on in the bottom of the second inning, an error out in center field allowed the first run of game two to come in.  Promptly after the miscue, D'Youville officially doubled up their second attempts at-bat thanks to a run-producing passed ball.

In the top of the third inning, Medaille mounted a push.  Shawn Filas (Hamburg, NY, Hamburg) got the blue and gold on the board with a single to left field.  Following the Filas knock, Wojcinski came up clutch once again with a two-run single up the middle, giving the Mavericks their first lead of game two (3-2).

The lead would not last long, however, as the Spartans retaliated with five unanswered runs from the bottom of the third inning up until the bottom of the sixth.  On the strength of a triple, a balk, a bases-loaded walk, and yet another run-producing three-bagger, D'Youville officially turned the tides handedly on the blue and gold as they came up to bat in the top half of the seventh.

Then came the gritty Maverick rally.  With the bases loaded and two outs, Dunning walked to produce the fourth run for the team.  Next, Connor Priester (North Tonawanda, NY, North Tonawanda) singled in two runs for the blue and gold to pull them to within a mere run.

With the score now standing at (7-6) advantage D'Youville after seven innings in the books, Medaille tied things up late in the top of the eighth thanks to a costly wild pitch by the Spartans (7-7).

D'Youville was stalled in the bottom of the eighth inning, and then the Mavericks went back to work in the top of the ninth.  Paul Barker (Niagara Falls, NY, Niagara Falls) drew a meaningful walk in the frame, and was manufactured all the way around to third base as Kemp stepped to the plate.  Kemp lifted a short fly ball between second base and right field which was caught, but Barker instinctively scampered ahead of the throw to give Medaille a (8-7) advantage in the final inning of play.  The blue and gold tacked on insurance runs following the sacrifice fly as Teoli and Power both came up with run-scoring infield singles to extend the Maverick lead to (10-7) as they went into shutdown mode for the bottom half.

Wojcinski nailed down Medaille's second win of the day with a painless bottom of the ninth, finalizing the crucial AMCC sweep of the D'Youville College Spartans.

His 3.1 innings of scoreless relief loomed large in the victorious effort.

GAME 2 STATS
Priester: 2 for 5, 2 RBI, BB 7650
Kemp's sacrifice fly in the 9th held as the game-winning RBI in game two
Kemp: RBI
Jared McStine (Endicott, NY, Union-Endicott): 3 for 6, 2 R
Teoli: 1 for 1, 2 R, RBI, BB
Filas: 2 for 5, R
Carroccia: 4 IP, 5 H, 5 R (3 ER), 4 BB, 2 K
Tom Lunghino (Buffalo, NY, Kenmore West): 1.2 IP, H, 2 R, 2 K
Wojcinski (WP, 1-2): 3.1 IP, 4 H, BB, K; 2 for 5, R, 2 RBI