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Box Score 2 |
Box Score 3 Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Brooklyn, N.Y.— The John Jay baseball team battled with the City College of New York (CCNY) for over seven hours, which included three games and 23 innings. And when the final out in the third game was made at 7:15 p.m., the energy at American Legion Field would have you thinking the day was just starting, as
Steven Kendrick (Bronx, NY, Sacred Heart) pitched 6.0 innings of relief and allowed no earned runs (four unearned) and kept the Bloodhounds in a game that appeared to be slipping away as John Jay defeated the CCNY 14-13 in a very exciting third game. Earlier in the day the two teams split the first two as John Jay won game one 17-4 and lost game two 13-8.
With the series win, the Bloodhounds clinched the No. 2 spot for the 2010 CUNYAC baseball championship and will face the Beavers once again in the opening round on Thu. April 29 at MCU Park on Coney Island.
“I am very overwhelmed right now,” said game three winning pitcher, Kendrick, who struck out six batters over the final six innings. “I knew as long as I can limit CCNY's run scoring, I was very confident we would win. We were hitting good all afternoon, so I knew we would get the runs we needed to come back.”
The Bloodhounds had two of their best scoring outputs this season. Prior to today, John Jay had scored at least 14 runs only once, in a 14-4 win over Yeshiva on Wednesday.
John Jay batted .448 as a team (47-for-105) with 13 doubles and a triple. The Bloodhounds had 35 RBI and had a .590 slugging percentage.
Edwin Hernandez (Brooklyn, NY, Murry Bergtraum) was a combined 8-for-14 with three doubles, a triple and seven RBI, while
Luis Guzman (Yonkers, NY, Mt. St. Michael's),
Wilmer Chavez (Corona, NY, Queens Vocational),
Nick Catalano (Staten Island, NY, St. Peter's Boys),
Dennis Lopez (Selden, NY, Newfield) and Kendrick batted at least .500.
In the first game, the visiting Beavers scored a run in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead. But John Jay quickly went to work en route to a season-high 17 runs. The Bloodhounds scored four in the bottom of the first, three in the second and three in the third to lead 10-1. CCNY scored three in the top of the fourth to pull to within six runs, before John Jay exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to go up by 13 to win by its largest margin of victory this season.
The Bloodhounds had 17 runs on 16 hits in game one. Catalano was 4-for-5 in the opening game with two doubles, three runs and four RBI, while Hernandez was 3-for-4 with a triple, four runs and three RBI. Chavez and Guzman both added three RBI in game one.
Meanwhile starting pitcher
Chris Camacho (Maspeth, NY, HS of Applied Communications) pitched brilliantly going the distance allowing four runs on seven hits and striking out a career-high eight batters in the process.
In the second game, the John Jay hitting was slow to develop. CCNY jumped out to 5-0 lead after four innings.
But the Bloodhounds came alive in the bottom of the fourth with a five run inning to tie the score. Lopez, who was 2-for-3 with a run and three RBI in the middle contest, delivered a two run single to highlight the inning. He then scored on a double by Hernandez, who was 2-for-4 with two doubles, a run and two RBI. Hernandez then scored to tie the game on an RBI single by Catalano.
The Beavers though retook the lead with three runs in the top of the sixth. But the never say die Bloodhounds scored three of their own. Lopez, Hernandez and
Jason Witten (Staten Island, NY, New Dorp) delivered RBI hits to knot the game at 8-8.
But CCNY finally put the Bloodhounds away with five runs in the top of the seventh, capped by a grand slam homerun by
Raymie Fernandez, who was 3-for-4 with five RBI for CCNY.
In the rubber game, the two teams combined for 33 hits and much scoring highlighted the early innings.
CCNY, who batted in the bottom half of the innings due to the game being scheduled as a home game for the Beavers, scored three runs in the bottom of the first to lead 3-0.
But John Jay countered with five in the second to take its first lead of the game. CCNY reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the third. Trailing 6-4 going into the bottom of the inning, the Beavers tacked on three runs to lead 7-6.
CCNY led most of the way and led 13-8 after six innings. But the Bloodhounds scored a run in the top of the seventh to edge closer. The never say die Bloodhounds claimed the lead in the top of the eighth with a five spot. 13 batters came to the plate and an RBI single by Witten drove in Chavez to give the Bloodhounds their first lead since the third inning.
Meanwhile Kendrick kept the Bloodhounds in with a fighting chance. He took the ball with his team trailing 9-6 in the fourth with no outs and runners on second and third. He struck out the first batter he faced before the next two lined out, including the final out, a shot back to him he snagged, keeping the Bloodhounds within reach.
Bloodhound fielding miscues allowed four Beaver runs to score in the fifth and sixth innings. But CCNY was limited to no hits and two base runners over the final three innings as the Bloodhounds took the rubber game.
“We played well today, our hitting came around the way I know we can hit,” said head coach
Dan Palumbo. “If we continue to get solid hitting a strong pitching we have a serious shot at winning the conference.”
John Jay will play one more game before the tournament on Tuesday April 27 at Centenary College at 4 p.m.
