Loudenville, NY (April, 14, 2010) - Freshman Dan Lackner's (New Hyde Park, NY) two run homerun in the eight inning gave the Bears the lead for good as NYIT rallied past Siena for a 6-4 win this afternoon in non-conference action. The Bears push their season-high winning streak to six games and improve to 12-12 on the season.

 

The Bears grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as sophomore Sebastian Grazziani (Whitestone, NY) doubled with one out and later crossed the plate on a wild pitch. Siena (13-19) answered when Dan Paolini and Kevin Quaranto hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the bottom half of the frame.

 

NYIT retook the lead in the third on senior Christian Dienna's (Old Bethpage, NY) two-RBI single to right.

 

The Saints tied the game, 3-3, on Dan Gasapo's RBI single in the fourth and took the lead in the seventh when Anthony Giansanti followed Mike Allen's leadoff triple with a sacrifice fly.

 

Lackner provided the big blow of the game, launching his first homerun of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth off Siena reliever Ryan Poplawski and junior Jerry Smith's (Nesconset, NY) RBI single in the ninth added an insurance run. Senior Andrew Gurassi pitched a perfect ninth to pick up his second save of the season.

 

Senior Steve Faulkner (Bay Shore, NY) earned his first win of the season, striking out three batters and not allowing a hit in 1.1 innings of work. Grazziani led all players with three hits for NYIT.

 

The Bears open up a Great West Conference four game series with Houston Baptist on Friday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.