FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The New Paltz men’s baseball team suffered three losses this weekend at the hands of a tough Mary Washington team. The Hawks played in two tight games Saturday, losing 6-4 and 2-1 and were defeated 11-4 on Sunday.
Despite playing outside for the first time all season due to weather conditions in the region, the Hawks managed a lead in each of the games against the Eagles.
In game one on Saturday, After spotting the Eagles a quick first-inning two-run lead, New Paltz tied the score in the fourth. Silvester Castro (New York, NY) scored on an error after starting the inning with a triple and Josh Gutes (Hauppauge, NY) scored on Tom Bigler’s (Brewster, NY) RBI- double. Mary Washington came back with three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth for a 6-2 lead before the Hawks got two in the top of the seventh on Jeff Cote’s (Mechanicsville, MD) RBI-double and Castro’s RBI-single for the final 6-4 score. Marc Bernstein (Altamonte Springs, FL) took the loss on the hill for New Paltz going four and 2/3rd innings, surrendering five runs on four hits while striking out five batters.
Game two saw a pitcher’s duel between the Hawks’ Rich Bizelia (Massapequa, NY) and the Eagles’ Zach Darden (Suffolk, VA). Bizelia went the distance scattering five hits and striking out five batters while Darden pitched a complete-game one-hitter, striking out eight Hawks in a 2-1 win. New Paltz took the lead in the second inning but saw it slip away in the late innings as Mary Washington tied it in the sixth on Jay Quintana’s (Miller Place, NY) RBI- single and the Eagles won it in the seventh on Robbie Wright’s (Chesapeake, VA) sacrifice bunt that was thrown into the outfield, allowing Sean Townsend (Chesapeake, VA) to score.
On Sunday, the Hawks held a 4-1 lead in the fourth only to see the Eagles plate two in the bottom of the fourth, four in the fifth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh to go on to an 11-4 win. The Hawks rapped out 12 hits on the day including three from Bigler and two from Bizelia. Andrew Raphael (Brooklyn, NY) pitched four innings for New Paltz giving up three runs on six hits. Keith Roloson (Westtown, NY) took the loss.
The Hawks next play on Mar. 15 against St. Scholastica at 8:45 a.m. and Nyack College at 11:45 a.m. in Ft. Pierce, FL.
