WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ - The Iona College baseball team lost in its opening game of their three-game conference series to Monmouth by a final score of 9-3, on Friday afternoon. Senior
Paul Sullivan impressed, tossing six complete innings on the mound but ultimately would receive a no-decision.
GAME SUMMARY
For the second straight game, senior
Nick Carnevale led off with a single and junior
Nick Forney followed up with a base hit through the left side to quickly set the Gaels up with a scoring chance. After a sac-bunt from senior
Will Jennings, senior
Brad Polinsky delivered the game's first runs with a two-run RBI single, giving Iona an early 2-0 lead.
With runners on second and third and only one-out, Monmouth had a chance to even up the score in their first plate appearance. However, making his sixth start on the mound this season for the Gaels, Sullivan got out of the jam recording a popup and a groundout.
Monmouth managed to even up the score in the bottom half of the inning. The Hawks took advantage of an error committed by the Gaels that led to runs coming in on an RBI single from Colin McCreary and a sac-fly from Dixon Black to even up the score at 2-2. With a runner still on third and Monmouth looking to take the lead, Sullivan got a fly-out to end the inning to keep the game tied.
Both offenses cooled off with Sullivan doing his part, tossing four consecutive scoreless innings and adding all three of his strikeouts during this stretch. The senior ace's final line was an impressive six innings with no earned runs allowed, on a career-high 113 pitches in his no decision outing.
The seventh inning proved to be the difference and with Sullivan exiting the game Monmouth took advantage. The Hawks drove in seven runs off of six hits, with Black hitting the go-ahead homer to break the tie for the Hawks.
With Monmouth leading 9-2, Iona tacked on another in the ninth on an RBI double from Jennings, bringing in Carnevale to score from second. Monmouth managed to get the games final out on a fly-out as the Hawks would take game one of the weekend series, 9-3.
NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Sullivan has now worked exactly six complete innings in three of his last four starts.
- Sullivan leads the team in K's with 30 on the season and his ERA is now best on the team after today's start.
- Polinsky's two-run single brings him up to three on the season, while Jennings' RBI double was his seventh on the year.
- Carnevale and senior Luca Lotitio each recorded two hits as Lotito is at five multiple hit games, while Carnevale has now collected hits in nine of the last 11 contests.
- Grad-student Vicente Mendoza and sophomore Jim Kemp picked up hits to round up Iona's 10 hits on the day.
UP NEXT
The series will continue with game two scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 PM, with senior
Drew Helmstetter slated to be the mound for the Gaels.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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