LOUDONVILLE, NY - The Iona College baseball team earned a split its doubleheader with Siena on Saturday afternoon.
Will Jennings drove in three runs and
Drew Helmstetter pitched six strong innings to give Iona the 8-3 victory, but Siena bounced back to take the second game, 10-3 at Connors Park.
GAME ONE RECAP: IONA 8, SIENA 3
Helmstetter began the afternoon pitching a scoreless first inning, working around a runner on second by getting a fly-out and inning ending groundout. After surrendering an unearned run in the second, Helmstetter recovered to throw two straight scoreless innings, retiring seven straight hitters in the process.
Trailing 1-0, the Gaels began the third inning with singles from
Luca Lotito and
Phoenix Bowman. With runners on second and third but two-outs,
Nick Forney got Iona on the board with a two-run RBI single, giving the Gaels a 2-1 lead. The Gaels added to the lead in the fourth, with Jennings driving in
Brad Polinsky on a sac-fly, to extend the lead to 3-1 through four innings of play.
Siena rallied for single runs in the fifth and sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3. The Saints had a chance to take the lead in the inning with two runners on and only one-out, but Helmsetter ended his afternoon picking up a strikeout and fly-out. The seniors final line was six innings, 2 earned, while picking five strikeouts and the victory.Â
After Siena tied the game, Iona quickly retook the lead with
Chris Mariani starting the inning off with a double down the left field line. Polinsky followed with a single to advance Mariani, leading to
Jim Kemp driving in the game's go-ahead run on a RBI single to left field. Jennings continued the inning with the Gaels third straight single, driving in Polinsky on the hit to give Iona the 5-3 lead after six innings.
Michael Untracht came out of the bullpen and tossed two scoreless innings to keep Iona in front. Untracht struckout a season-high four batters, including striking out the side in the eighth, to cap off his relief appearance.
Iona picked up three insurance runs in the bottom half of the eighth that started with Polinsky hitting an RBI single to score Forney. Jennings once again delivered, driving in his third run of the game with his second RBI single. The Gaels got their final run of the inning on a sac-fly from Lotito, pushing the lead to 8-3.
Gavin Bates came in and shut the door for the Gaels in game one, picking up two strikeouts to clinch Iona's 8-3 victory in game one of the doubleheader at Connors Park.
GAME TWO RECAP: SIENA 10, IONA 3
Joey Kasper got the start for Iona in the second game and after allowing the first two batters to reach base, Kasper picked up a strikeout and two groundouts to escape the inning. Iona began the scoring with Polinsky driving in Carnevale on fielder's choice to give the Gaels an early lead. Kasper worked a scoreless second inning, retiring the side but unfortunately ran into some trouble in the third. Siena scored five-runs including a two-RBI double and home run to turn the tide of the contest. All runs in the inning were, however, unearned.Â
Matt Zguro came in relief and pitched two scoreless innings, adding two strikeouts to keep the deficit at four runs. Similar to Kasper, Zguro ran into trouble in his third inning out, as Siena broke the game open with four runs, including a three-run home run from Byrce Mordecki.
Trailing 9-1, Iona chipped into Siena's lead with two runs in the seventh inning. Singles from Carnevale and
Jake Field started the rally, leading to an RBI double from Forney and then a sac-fly from Mariani to score Field.Â
Iona's offense couldn't get any more runs in the final two innings and Siena added a run in the ninth, before winning game two of the doubleheader 10-3, on Saturday afternoon.
NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Jennings three-RBIs, ties a career-high for the senior and also puts him in front for most runs batted in on the team with 19.
- Forney's two-RBIs in game one brings him to 16 on the season and his four hits on the day, now brings him to 44 on the year to lead the club.
- Helmstetter improves to 2-1 on the year and also extends his streak to four straight games working six innings or the more on the mound. The senior also lowered his ERA to 5.44 which is best on the team and five K's bring him to 25 on the season for the lefty.
- Carnevale's first inning run in game two, brings him to 21 runs scored on the season to extend his team lead.Â
- Angelo Bartziokas struckout a new career-high, three batters in his relief appearance in game two.
UP NEXT
The Gaels will go for the series win tomorrow afternoon against the Saints, with the rubber match scheduled for noon. Head coachÂ
Conor Burke will honor Iona's 12 seniors prior to the start of the game.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Be sure to follow Iona College athletics on all social media platforms:
ICGaels: Twitter, Facebook, InstagramÂ
and YouTube (Email Updates)
Iona Baseball: Twitter, Instagram and YouTube (Email Updates)
