DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (May 6, 2018) – Powered by a walk-off single in the 10th inning from sophomore Scott Kelnhofer (New Hyde Park, N.Y./New Hyde Park), the Mercy College baseball team earned a 6-5 Senior Day victory over ECC foe University of Bridgeport on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Field.
In a ceremony prior to the game, seniors Shaine Carpenter (Florham Park, N.J./Saint Anselm College), Ralph Pasols (Middletown, N.Y./Orange CC), John Young (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy), Tyler Cinelli (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham), Oscar Marcial (New York, N.Y./A. Philip Randolph) and Juan Perez (Bronx, N.Y./Iowa Lakes CC) were recognized.
The Mavericks (21-28, 10-14 ECC) finish with their most wins in a season since 1990 and end the year with their most ECC wins since 2014. The Purple Knights (14-32, 11-13 ECC) see their three-game winning streak come to an end.
Kelnhofer went 2-for-4 with an RBI and sophomore John Mooradian (Marlboro, N.Y./Marlboro) went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Junior Joseph Sadallah (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) went 2-for-4 with an RBI and junior Miguel Ortiz Sanchez (Bronx, N.Y./Monroe College) batted 2-for-4 with an RBI. Carpenter went 1-for-2 with an RBI and freshman Demetri Mesimeris (Commack, N.Y./Commack) earned the win with a scoreless tenth inning pitched. Freshman Anthony Amato (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown West) tossed 2.1 scoreless innings, sophomore Matteo Finocchi (Staatsburg, N.Y./FDR) pitched two scoreless frames and Perez added another scoreless inning.
Bridgeport was led by Tom Rinaldi who went 2-for-3 with three RBI and Ben Torres tossed 1.2 innings of relief to take the loss.
The Purple Knights jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Rinaldi singled home a run to make it 1-0. It remained 1-0 until the top of the third when Bridgeport scored three runs to build a 4-0 lead. Rinaldi recorded a two-run double and Torres hit an RBI double down the left field line.
Mercy finally got on the board in the sixth inning when Ortiz Sanchez singled home Mooradian to make it 4-1. Carpenter plated the second run of the inning on a single to left field that got the Mavericks within 4-2.
Bridgeport responded with a run in the top of the seventh to take a 5-2 lead on a Denis Berardi RBI single. Mercy answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning when Mooradian recorded an RBI on a hit by pitch with the bases loaded and junior Anthony Murphy (Peekskill, N.Y./Peekskill) made it 5-4 with a sacrifice fly to center.
Sadallah tied the game up at 5-5 in the ninth inning on a single to center field that scored freshman Carmine Szynal (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage). Mercy went on to load the bases but could not score, sending the game into extra innings.
After a scoreless top of the tenth, junior Alonso Tenya (Lima, Peru/Westchester CC) led off the bottom of the tenth with a single to left field. After a sacrifice bunt moved Tenya over to second, a strikeout would lead to Kelnhofer coming to the plate with two outs. The sophomore would deliver with an RBI single to left center that scored Tenya to give the Mavericks the walk-off win on Senior Day.
