NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona University baseball team earned the series victory over Saint Peter's after defeating the Peacocks 12-10, at City Park. The Gaels recorded a season-best eight runs off nine hits, sending 13 batters to the plate in the opening inning on their way to earning the victory on Saturday afternoon.
Game Summary
After
Alex Hunt pitched a scoreless inning, Iona's offense came alive in their first plate appearance. The first five batters recorded hits including RBI knocks from
Jake Field,
Luca Lotito and
Jim Pasquale. Leading 5-0,
Nick Forney singled up the middle to drive in a runner and soon after
Chris Mariani continued the offensive attack, with an RBI single, scoring Forney on the play. The Gaels last two runs of the inning came off a pinch-hit RBI single from
Nickolas Mora and a sac-fly from Field.
The Peacocks trimmed the Gaels lead in half after scoring a run in the second followed by three-run third inning homer from Sam Haney. After allowing the homer, Hunt got the last batter he faced to strikeout, finishing his outing with five strikeouts in three innings of work.
Leading 8-5 entering the bottom half of the sixth Iona added four key insurance runs, creating separation once again. Mora and
Will Jennings began the inning with consecutive hits and Field came through, delivering a two-run double for his seventh and eighth RBI's of the series. Later in the frame, Pasquale drove Field in on a double and
James Kemp provided the final knock for the Gaels with a two-out RBI single through the left side, giving Iona a 12-5 lead through six innings.
With Saint Peter's not going away, the Iona bullpen tandem of
Tyler Lender and
Matt Zguro helped the Gaels close out the victory. Lender came in the seventh inning with the bases-loaded and got two key outs with tying runner up at the plate, and then went on to throw a scoreless eighth inning. Zguro came in and earned the save after picking up two strikeouts in the ninth inning to secure Iona's conference series victory over Saint Peter's at City Park.
Up Next
The Gaels will travel to Staten Island on Tuesday, April 11 for a non-conference matchup with Wagner. The game will be streamed on NEC FrontRow and is scheduled for 3:00 pm.
Social Media
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ICGaels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (Email Updates)
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