Old Westbury, NY (April 10, 2010) - NYIT sophomore Sebastian Grazziani (Whitestone, NY) went 4-for-6 with two homeruns, six RBI and two runs scored to help lead the NYIT Bears to a double header sweep of Chicago State University this afternoon in Great West Conference action at President’s Field. Senior Andrew Guarassi (Long Island City, NY) threw a complete game two hitter in the opener, striking out a season-high 12 batters over seven innings to lead the Bears to a 6-2 victory. Guarassi was stellar, allowing just one hit over the final six frames. With the sweep the Bears improve to 7-12 on the season and 3-0 in the conference, while Chicago State drops to 1-21 and 0-3 in the league.

 

In game one, Chicago State took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Guarassi walked the leadoff batter and allowed a two run homer to Christian Prince.

 

The Bears came right back in similar fashion in the bottom half of the frame. Freshman Ali Rodriguez (Yorktown, Va.) led off with an infield single and senior Brian Smith (Nesconset, NY) connected for his third home run of the season, a two run shot to right-center field to tie the score at 2-2.

 

Guarassi settled down and retired the next seven batters, including five in a row on strikeouts and the Bears grabbed a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second on a Grazziani RBI single to left field that scored sophomore Steve McNamara. NYIT tacked on another run in the third before Grazziani increased the lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning, driving a two run homerun, his third of the season, over the right field fence.

 

Grazziani finished the game 2-2 with three RBI and a run scored, and Brian Smith went 2-3 with two RBI and two runs scored.

 

Chicago State used the home run ball to jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning of game two, as Miguel Camacho connected on his second homerun of the series, a solo shot to right field.

 

Grazziani continued is impressive afternoon, and kick started a four run rally for the Bears, tying the game 1-1 in the bottom of the second with his second homerun of the day.  The Bears took advantage of two Chicago State errors in the inning and got RBI singles from Valdez and senior Christian Dienna (Old Bethpage, NY).

 

The Cougars responded with a run in the fourth and put up five runs in the top of the fifth inning to grab their first lead of the day, 7-4.

 

Junior Effrey Valdez (Flushing, NY) led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo homerun, his fourth of the year, Dienna came home on a McNamara sacrifice fly and senior Greg Gilroy’s (Nesconset, NY) double down the left field line scored Brian Smith to tie the score at 7-7.

 

The Bears put up six runs in the sixth inning, getting an RBI single from Gilroy and a two RBI single from Grazziani to build a commanding 13-8 lead. NYIT tacked on a single run in the eighth to provide the final score.

 

Senior Matt McDevitt (Howard Beach, NY) allowed just two hits over the final three innings to earn his first win of the season in relief.

 

Valdez finished the second game 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored Gilroy was 3-for-5with two runs scored and two RBI

 

NYIT and Chicago State wrap up the four game series with a single game tomorrow starting at 1 p.m.