NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College baseball team fell short in their series finale to Albany by a final score of, 11-1 at City Park. Despite the loss senior pitcher Paul Sullivan gave the Gaels six strong innings on the mound, recording a new career-high 9 strikeouts. 

GAME SUMMARY

Sullivan began the afternoon striking out the leadoff batter  but for the third consecutive game, Albany managed to score in the first inning. With runners on the corners Brad Malm scored on a bang-bang play at the plate, after a passed ball. The following batter, Johnny Marti, drove in a run for the Great Danes with an RBI double to make it 2-0. 

The score would stay the same up until the sixth inning as Sullivan began to settle in, facing the minimum in the second inning including two strikeouts and followed that up with two more strikeouts in the third. 

In the bottom half of the third inning after freshman Matt Shuhet and senior Luca Lotito both reached base on errors the Gaels had an opportunity with the go-ahead run at the plate but Albany starting pitcher Connor Eisenmann escaped trouble with an inning end fly-out.

Sullivan remained in control, retiring Albany in order in the fourth adding two more strikeouts to his total and in the fifth with a runner on second Sullivan got Malm to ground out to keep the score at 2-0. 

In the top of the sixth after a leadoff walk, the Great Danes added some insurance with a two-run inside the park homerun from Jason Bottari, making it 4-0. Sullivan retired the next three batters as he finished his afternoon with his ninth and final strikeout.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth Lotito recorded Iona's first hit of the afternoon with a single up the middle. After senior Jake Field reached base on a walk, the Gaels had runners at first and second but similar to the third inning Eisenmann escaped the jam to keep the Gaels off the board.

In relief for the Gaels, senior Michael Untracht pitched a scoreless seventh inning, working himself out of a bases loaded jam recording an inning ending ground out. Albany tacked on their fifth run of the afternoon on an RBI single and with the bases still loaded, junior Gavin Bates came out of the bullpen and picked up a big strikeout to limit the damage, keeping the score at 5-0.  

Iona cut into the Great Danes lead in the bottom half of the inning when Field drove in Lotito on an RBI single to left field, making it 5-1. Field's eighth inning RBI was his third on the season and his team leading ninth hit. 

Albany added to their four run lead, scoring six more runs in their last plate appearance as the Great Danes would go on to win the ball game by a final score of 11-1, sweeping the weekend series at City Park. 

UP NEXT

The Gaels return to action next weekend for a road series against Delaware beginning on Friday March 11th, at 3:00 PM.

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