By: By Michael L. Damon
Box Score Box Score
Little Falls, N.J. — The John Jay baseball team was stopped by the rain on Wednesday. After falling behind 12-2 after six innings, the Bloodhounds responded with a ferocious two out rally in the top of the seventh inning to pull to within striking range, but mother nature came out of the bullpen for the save as the game was stopped after 6.5 innings due to heavy rain as the Bloodhounds were defeated by Montclair State 12-7 at Yogi Berra Stadium.
John Jay got a tremendous afternoon from
John Massoni who at the plate was 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI. And he got the scoring started in the top of the first with a two run homer to right field to give the Bloodhounds a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first.
The Bloodhounds led until the bottom of the second when the host Red Hawks scored the first four of 12 unanswered runs to take a 4-2 lead. Montclair State scored four in the third and four in the sixth to take the 12-2 lead after six.
In the seventh, the first two batters of the inning went quietly, leaving John Jay with two outs and nobody on. But John Jay registered four straight hits to get back into the game. The rally started with back-to-back doubles by
Edwin Hernandez (Brooklyn, NY, Murry Bergtraum) and
James Podlucky (Staten Island, NY, IMG Academy). Podlucky doubled in Hernandez for the first run of the inning.
Then the next batter, Massoni, registered a single to drive in Podlucky. John Jay then got its fourth straight hit courtesy of
Xavier Perez (Bronx, NY, Manhattan Center).
Jason Witten (Staten Island, NY, New Dorp) then reached on an error to keep the inning going before three straight walks scored two more runs.
Montclair State recorded the final out of the inning after 11 batters came to the plate. But the rain became too much to overcome as the game ended.
“This is what we needed tonight, I think we may have turned the corner,” said head coach
Dan Palumbo. “Playing against a team like Montclair State, a school with so much rich baseball history and plays in the best conference in the NCAA (New Jersey Athletic Conference), to be able to come back like we did is a great thing.”
Massoni suffered the loss after going two innings in a tune up start before his next start against Lehman College on Saturday. John Jay used three other pitchers:
Michael Colletta (Staten Island, NY, New Dorp),
Johan Abad (Corona, NY, Flushing) and
Ludwing Francisco (Santo Domingo, DR, Gregorio Luperon).
John Jay returns to action on Thu. Apr. 2 for a home game against Polytechnic Univ. at 3:30 p.m.
