NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona University baseball team earned an 8-4 victory over Niagara, to clinch the weekend series over the Purple Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
Jake Field's inside the park grand slam turned a two run game into a 7-1 Iona lead and the Gaels wouldn't look back on their way to the win at City Park.
Senior Day Ceremony
Prior to the game Iona Baseball head coach
Conor Burke and Deputy of Athletics Tom Moran honored Iona's three seniors and their family members.
Nick Forney,
Loncey Conyers and
Jim Pasquale.
Game Summary
Clark Eder delivered another impressive start for the Gaels, pitching five innings while only allowing a run and adding five strikeouts on his way to earning his first collegiate win on the mound. Eder began his afternoon allowing the first two batters to reach base but a 6-4-3 double-play followed by an inning ending pop-up quickly eliminated the scoring threat.
Eder picked up three of his five strikeouts in the second and third inning and after surrendering his lone run in the fourth, the righty bounced back, picking up two more K's in his final inning on the mound.Â
The Gaels offense got going in the fifth inning after scoring three runs on multiple hits while also taking advantage of an error. Pasquale delivered the go-ahead hit, putting the Gaels in front on an RBI single up the middle that brought in
Josiah Ragsdale and Forney on the hit.
Anthony Zollo added to the lead with an RBI single to put Iona in front 3-1 after five innings of play.Â
With the bases loaded in the sixth Field broke open the game following an inside the park grand slam for his tenth homer of the season while bringing him up to 52 runs batted it on the year. In relief
Michael Lorenzetti kept Niagara off the board in his two innings of work, picking up multiple strikeouts while working around minimal traffic to keep the Gaels lead well intact.
Chris Mariani drove in Iona's last run on an RBI fielder's choice to extend Iona's lead to 8-1.
Michael Untracht completed the afternoon for the Gaels and despite allowing multiple runs, the lefty grad-student picked up clutch strikeouts in the eighth and ninth inning to secure Iona's senior day victory over Niagara.
Up Next
The Gaels will conclude their regular season on the road at Fairfield next weekend. Game one is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM on Thursday, May 18. Â
Social Media
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and YouTube (Email Updates)
Iona Baseball: Twitter, Instagram and YouTube (Email Updates)
