Sam Tapper—Contributor
After a day filled with dominant pitching and strong offense, the baseball team split a doubleheader at home against the College of Saint Rose Golden Knights.
In game one, the Owls were led by their starting pitcher, freshman Brandon White. White set the tone for his team, as he pitched five full innings, surrendering just one run while striking out four batters. White gave up four hits and walked three batters.
“I felt good, everything was working, wasn’t my best but I had to grind through it,” said White, who improved to 2-0 on the season. “Fastball, slider mostly was alright, could’ve had better command, but I got through it.”
White’s dominant outing on the mound was what his team needed, as their offense quickly got going behind him. Senior left fielder Nick Lamberti put the Owls on the board in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI double. Two batters later, junior catcher Mike DeMartino recorded an RBI single up the middle, and was followed by another RBI single by senior center fielder Mac Finnegan, giving the Owls a 3-0 lead in the first.
The Owls weren’t done there, as DeMartino came up clutch again with a double down the right field line in the bottom of the fifth, scoring both Lamberti and junior infielder Connor Redahan. DeMartino finished game one 2-4, with three RBIs and a run scored. Overall, he finished 3-8, with a team-high of five RBIs in both games combined.
“I felt pretty comfortable at the plate,” said DeMartino.
“I wish I got the job done a couple more times, but you know, felt pretty decent today.”
The bullpen took over for the Owls in the sixth inning; first, sophomore Brandon Rentas came on the mound, who gave up one run off three hits in one and two-thirds innings. Next came freshman Tommy Hughes, for one and one-third innings.
Finally, senior Quantique White came in the ninth to close and picked up his third save of the season after retiring the Golden Knights in order. Head Coach Tim Shea earned high praise for the effort shown by his pitching staff.
“Brandon White competed,” said Shea. “Rentas came in and competed, Tommy Hughes did a good job, and then [White] was lights out closing it out.”
The effort in game one was a good one, as the Owls won 6-4, picking up their first home win of the season. However, game two did not go as planned.
The Golden Knights took advantage of some early miscues by the Owls, as a walk and two errors allowed Saint Rose to get on the board in the top of the first at 1-0. In the top of the second, the Knights jumped all over Owls starter, senior Ronnie Rossomando, as he gave up four runs, digging the Owls a 5-0 hole early.
Rossomando settled down, as he then threw four straight shut-out innings, but his offense never got going when he needed them to. DeMartino, who played first base in game two, cut the deficit to three on a two RBI triple in the third, and an RBI single by Redahan cut the lead to two, but the Owls couldn’t break through any further against Saint Rose’s starter, Greg Musk, who pitched six solid innings.
The Owls left ten runners on base in game two alone and lost the second game 7-3.
“I told these guys in the huddle we’ve got to get the job done, somebody’s got to come up with a swing,” said Coach Shea. “It’s not good enough to split, you know, we’ve got to come out here and we’ve got to take two games, so it was a little bit disappointing
Photo Credit: Will Aliou
