Mar 21, 2010
Baseball's rally falls short in 9-8 loss to Siena

Old Westbury, NY (March 21, 2010) - The NYIT baseball team rallied from an 8-4 deficit with a four run sixth inning, but Siena's Larry Balkwill drove in the winning run in the top of the ninth inngin as Siena held on for the 9-8 win this afternoon in non-conference action. The loss drops the Bears to 3-6 on the season, while Siena improves to 8-11.

The Bears took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as senior Brian Smith (Nesconset, NY), who led off with an infield single, came around to score on junior Effrey Valdez's (Flushing, NY) double play ball.

Siena bounced back, scoring three times off of NYIT starter senior Andrew Guarrasi (Long Island, City, NY), in the top of the second and the Saints tacked on a nother on a sacrifice fly in the third to take a 4-1 leaed. Senior Greg Gilroy's (Nesconset, NY) RBI double and sophomore Ryan Campbell's (Bellmore, NY)  two RBI double in the bottom half of the third tied the score at 4-4.

In the fifth Dan Paolini homered to left center to give the Saints a 5-4 lead and after Guarrasi loaded the bases, Andy Carucci cleared them all with a triple to right center to increase Sien'a advanatge to 8-4. The Bears did not wait long however, putting up four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth. Sophomore Sebastian Grazziani (Whitestone, NY) got things started with a two run homerun, Valdez plated another with a double and freshman Ali Rodriguez (Yorktown, Va,) scored on a passed ball to retie the score.  

Senior Mike Roth (Rockville Centre, NY), relieved Guarassi to start the seventh and was excellent, but in the ninth Paolini tripled with two outs and Balkwill followed with the infield single to drive in the games winning run. Roth scattered four hits over three innings of work in relief. 

Grazziani and Campbell each drove in two runs in the loss.

The Bears return to action this Tuesday as they host Iona at 3 p.m.