VILLANOVA, PA - The Iona University baseball team came up short in their first game at Villanova ballpark, falling 8-4 on Friday afternoon to the Wildcats. The Gaels scored three of their four runs in the first two plate appearances, but a six-run third inning from Villanova proved to be the difference maker in game one of the series.
Game Summary
The first four batters for Iona reached base beginning with
Anthony Zollo leading off with a single and
Will Jennings drawing a walk. With an early scoring opportunity
Jake Field delivered an RBI single up the middle to quickly put Iona on the board. Villanova kept the Gaels to only a run using an inning end double-play to escape further trouble.
After Villanova tied the game on a leadoff home-run from AJ Hansen,
Luca Lotito followed up in the ensuing inning, leading off the second with a home-run to put Iona right back in front. Later in the inning following a single and stolen-base from
Josiah Ragsdale, Zollo drove him in with an RBI single to extend Iona's lead to 3-1.Â
Teo Torrado kept Iona in front following a scoreless second inning, picking up both his strikeouts in the frame. However, the Wildcats used six runs in the third to take control of the ballgame, taking advantage of five walks and a hit by pitch, catapulting the inning.
The Gaels got a run back in the fourth on a sac-fly from
Jayson Gonzalez scoring
Anthony Febo from third base, cutting the deficit to 7-4. Unfortunately the Gaels wouldn't mount across anymore runs following the fourth inning sac-fly.
Freshmen
Michael Lorenzetti kept the Wildcats off the board throwing 2.1 scoreless innings in relief. Lorenzetti faced the minimum in the fourth, striking out two batters and picked up his third strikeout in his final inning of work in the fifth.
Eric Gialloreto replaced Lorenzetti and worked two scoreless innings, adding a strikeout to end the sixth and multiple ground-outs in the seventh.
Villanova managed to add an insurance run in the eighth and Stephen Turzai came in relief and retired all seven Iona hitters to close out the 8-4 victory for the Wildcats.
Up Next
Game two of the series between Iona and Villanova is scheduled for 1pm tomorrow afternoon. The game can be streamed on FloSports.
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)
