Grimes Belts Fourth Homer But Baseball Falls To No. 19 SUNY Cortland
AUBURNDALE, Fla. (March 14, 2010) – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team, facing its third-consecutive ranked opponent, fell to No. 19 SUNY Cortland, 11-5, at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla. to open up its annual spring trip. The Ducks, who were coming off a 13-3 loss to No. 6 Kean University and 10-8 victory over No. 3 Eastern Connecticut State University, are now 4-5 on the young season, while the Red Dragons improved to 5-2 on the year.
Junior rightfielder Russ Grimes continued to swing the bat well, despite the loss, going 3-for-5 on the day with a home run and two runs scored. The South Brunswick, N.J. native has now homered in three-straight games – all against ranked opponents – and has a team-best four roundtrippers on the season. Sophomore designated hitter T.J. Alcorn went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while sophomore second baseman Tom Phillips went 2-for-5 with a run scored.
Junior righthander Mike Assman (Auburn, N.Y.) allowed just two earned runs on four hits, while striking out 11 in six full innings en route to his second win of the year. Freshman lefthander tossed one and a third no-hit innings for his first save of the season.
SUNY Cortland quickly wrestled control of the game with an eight-run first. Three-straight singles plated the Red Dragons’ first run before Adam Dimino (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) struck-out for the first Cortland out. Junior Jason Simone (Utica, N.Y.) singled in the Red Dragons’ second run, before fellow junior Kris Gentzke (Clarence Center, N.Y.) struck out looking.
Senior first baseman John Zilnicki (Riverhead, N.Y.) then reached on a Stevens error that scored two more runs, before a Justin Fredenburg (Saugerties, N.Y.) single, followed by a Damon Arnold (Wellsville, N.Y.) three-run blast made it 7-0. Senior third baseman Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) singled in the inning’s final run, scoring sophomore Matt June (Colonie, N.Y.) before senior Kevin Jackson (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) lifted a fly ball to left to end the Red Dragon first.
Down, 9-0 after another Cortland run in the bottom of the third, Stevens got on the board in the top half of the fourth on a Grimes’ one-out, solo-shot, his fourth of the season. The Ducks continued to chip away with a couple of runs in the top of the sixth on a Red Dragon error. Stevens then tacked on pair of runs in the seventh on a Mark Rasulo RBI single that scored Phillips, and an Alcorn two-out single that scored Rasulo.
Cortland closed out the scoring with a two-run eighth on a June RBI single, and a Nickel homer.
The Ducks return to action tomorrow, Monday, March 15, against defending Liberty League champion Clarkson University.
