TEANECK, N.J. – The FDU Knights (10-14, 7-3) and the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (0-21, 0-8) started their three-game conference series with a doubleheader. The Knights swept the two games by scores of 12-8 in game one and 28-8 in game two.
The Hawks got on the board first with a three-run top of the second inning resulting off a leadoff single and a successful bunt attempts to land the first two batters on base. With the runners moved off a sacrifice bunt, the Hawks scored one by an infield hit to third. Their second run resulted from a wild pitch. With runners on first and third, Maryland Eastern Shore plated their third run of the frame through another infield hit to take a 3-0 lead.
FDU answered with a three-run frame of their own in the bottom of the second inning.
Joey DiMotta led off the inning with a walk where he was moved around the bases to third and was brought home by
TJ Werner to start the Knights scoring.
Joan Sosa immediately followed up with a double down the left field line to score
Ben Avila and
Brian Sanders to knot the game at 3-3.
The Knights claimed the lead in the next inning with a leadoff home run from
Hunter D'Amato who lasered the ball over the right field fence to take a 4-3 lead.
In the top of the fifth, the Hawks found opportunity through FDU errors to score and take a 5-4 lead which was short lived as the Knights retaliated with a seven-run frame in their half of the fifth.
D'Amato landed on base after drawing a walk where he moved to third after tagging up on an infield sacrifice fly from
Zack Will to take second base with no one covering and moved to third off a throwing error. DiMotta plated D'Amato with a single up the middle to tie the game at 5-5. With bases loaded, the Hawks walked
Ben Avila and Werner to score two more runs to regain the lead at 7-5. With a single through the left side by
Joan Sosa, Avila and Sanders made their way home taking a 9-5 lead. D'Amato made his way back to the plate for the second time in the fifth inning to single and advance to second on the throw home securing two RBIs to extend their lead to 11-5.
The Hawks got one run back in the sixth, but the Knights answered with a
Justin Sierra RBI that scored Avila to make it a 12-6 ballgame.
Maryland Eastern Shore's late efforts to take game one wasn't enough to secure the win. Ultimately, the Knights came away victorious in game one by a score of 12-8.
Patrick Gardner started the game on the mound for FDU and pitched five total innings striking out six of the 24 batters he faced. We saw
Ben Pika and
Jason Diaz make relief appearances to piece together the final four innings. The duo faced 21 batters but only allowed three runs in game one's win.
The Knights managed to pick up seven hits and ten walks in today's game. D'Amato and Sosa picked up another multi-hit game with two hits each. DiMotta, Avila and Werner all recorded one hit each.
In game two, the Knights gained the lead off the bat in the first inning and never let up after that. With contact off the bat of D'Amato, Sosa was plated to give the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
With one out in the second inning,
Nick Quagliato blasted the ball out of the park hitting the top of the foul pole for a solo home run giving the Knights a 2-0 lead. With a walk drawn by Sanders and
JR Bozek singling up the middle,
Joan Sosa loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Sierra reached first on an error by the first basemen missing the bag to make the play to end the inning. With heads up base running, Sanders and Bozek scored as a result of the error to extend the Knights lead to 4-0.
Maryland Eastern Shore found a way to put up three runs in the third inning by scoring two runs off a single down the right field line and capitalized on a bases loaded opportunity scoring a run via hit by pitch to close the score deficit to 4-3 still trailing FDU.
Quagliato made hard contact to third base drawing the out at first but scored DiMotta to take a 5-3 lead in the third.
The Hawks started the fourth with a leadoff home run but still trailed the Knights 5-4.
The Knights plated two more in the fifth inning pulling ahead to 7-4.
With back-and-forth scoring through the top of the eighth, the Knights saw opportunity to extend their lead to 11-6 but had a major bottom of the eighth frame coming up.
FDU completely batted through their lineup twice and had three batters record three plate appearances in the frame. In the half inning, the Knights plated 17 runs and 12 of which occurred with two outs. Quagliato started off the inning with a double followed by
Luke Russo drawing a walk to set up
Nate Dudeck for the monster three-run home run he launched over the right field fence to extend the Knights lead to 14-6. With a triple by Sierra and a double from D'Amato, the Knight scored two more runs. FDU tacked on five runs in a bases loaded situation through four walks and one hit by pitch to stretch their lead to 21-6. D'Amato recorded an infield single to bring home Bozek. DiMotta cleared the bases with the second home run of the inning to push the FDU lead to 26-6.
Thomas Iaquinto logged his first collegiate hit with a double to right center and scored off a Quagliato single.
Luke Russo drove in the final FDU run with a triple to left center to plate Quagliato and give the Knights a 28-6 lead.
Maryland Eastern Shore was down to their final out when they scored two runs off a two-run home run from a pinch-hitting Kenneth Gaskins. Ultimately, the Knights took game two by a score of 28-8.
Joey Kosowsky started game two for the Knights where he pitched six innings and put away five batters through strikeout. We saw
Chris Mattioli and
Cole Vida make relief appearances to close the final three innings. The duo didn't grant any walks on the 12 batters they faced, only allowing three runs.
The Knights managed to pick up 16 hits and 18 walks in today's game. Five Knights picked up multi-hit games with
Justin Sierra and
Nick Quagliato leading the pack with three hits each and Sosa, D'Amato and DiMotta logging two hits each. Iaquinto, Russo, Dudeck and Bozek recorded a hit each as well.
UP NEXT
The Knights will return to action at home to close their three-game series against Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday, March 30 at Naimoli Family Baseball Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Connect with the FDU Baseball team on Twitter
@FDUKnightsBASE and Instagram
@FDUKnightsBASE
