Mercy University Men’s Baseball (14-19) defeated The College of Saint Rose (11-14) 11-6 Tuesday afternoon on a 73-degree sunny day at Mercy Field in front of a crowd of 35. This was the first win in April for what has been an abysmal start to the month for Mercy.
Saint Rose got on the scoreboard first taking an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. This would be the only inning Saint Rose would end with a lead. Mercy joined the scoring party taking a 2-1 advantage in the bottom half of the second inning. Junior Jaden Callabrero scorched a triple down the right field line that scored Junior Joseph Gonzalez. Callabrero gave Mercy their first lead by scoring on a Saint Rose wild pitch. Mercy would not relinquish the lead.
The score would remain the same until the bottom of the fourth inning. Freshman Nevin Scaporetti knocked a bases loaded double to left center extending Mercy’s lead to 4-1. Sophomore kalonji Goins and Freshman Joey Bodin scored on the play. Freshman Kyle Engmann scored on a single from Graduate student Nolan Giblin, extending the Mavericks lead to 5-1. Giblin would later score himself giving Mercy a commanding 6-1 advantage.
Saint Rose managed to make things interesting, inching close with a run in the top of the fifth. Mercy would respond with yet another scoring outburst. The Mavericks scored three runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning, the latter of which came on a passed ball that scored Scaporetti. Mercy would end the fifth with a 9-2 advantage.
Saint Rose would not go down without a fight, scoring three runs in the sixth and tacking on another run in the seventh inning. However, the comeback would prove to be in vain. Scaporetti capped off a career day with an RBI single in the eighth inning that extended Mercy’s lead to 11-6.
Callabrero led Mercy going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. This a milestone day for Callabrero. The Junior collected his 100th and 101st career runs scored in the outing.
Scaporetti was the man of the day, going 2-for-6 and knocking in a career-high four RBI for Mercy. Scaporetti’s bat spearheaded a powerful Mercy onslaught that proved to be too much for Saint Rose to overcome.
The win ends a season-long seven game losing streak for Mercy. This was the first time Mercy scored double digit runs in their last six outings. Mercy lost two previous meetings to Saint Rose earlier this year in Durham, North Carolina. This was the first victory for Mercy over Saint Rose in school history. Mercy’s overall record against Saint Rose is now 1-2.
This season has been one of streaks for Mercy. After winning the first game of the year in convincing fashion 18-2 against Goldey Beacom College, Mercy lost five consecutive games to begin the season with a 1-5 mark. Prior to losing seven straight Mercy crept above the 500. mark for the first time this year at 13-12.
Mercy won eight of ten games before the most recent losing streak. Prior to this performance Mercy’s bats had gone dormant. Mercy begins a four-game set Friday against Molloy University. The Mavericks look to extend their winning streak and improve on their 4-4 East Coast Conference record. Mercy trails St. Thomas Aquinas by only one-half game in ECC standings. Mercy most certainly has a difficult task ahead of them this weekend. Molloy is first in the ECC at 8-3. Molloy scored a season-high 26 runs against Felician University on Febr. 18th. They’ve won seven of their last nine contests. Molloy has been pounding opponents into submission of late. In a four-game set against Lincoln University, Molloy scored 85 runs. They’ll certainly be looking to regain their winning ways following an upset loss to Felician on Tuesday.
