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OLD WESTBURY, NY (www.oldwestburypanthers.com) – The SUNY College at Old Westbury baseball team earned their seventh consecutive win by defeating the Baruch College Bearcats, 9-4, Wednesday evening at the Jackie Robinson Athletic Complex. With the victory, Old Westbury improved to 5-0 at home and 9-8 overall while the Bearcats fell to 6-9 on the season.

Baruch scored first when David Chestnut grounded out to shortstop Melvin Simmons to score Peter Dinolfo from third base to go up 1-0 in the first inning. Old Westbury responded with one run in the bottom half of the inning as #Josef Schaetzle lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Melvin Simmons from third.

Baruch took a 3-1 lead in the third inning. Peter Dinolfo scored on a failed pickoff by Bobby Hugli and advanced Richard Melendez over to third base. The very next batter, David Chestnut, doubled to drive home Melendez. Old Westbury posted five runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead. Josef Schaetzle singled up the middle to score Giovanni Jimenez from third. Bladimir Toribio clubbed a double to right field and advanced to third on an error by the first baseman that scored Schaetzle. Joe Manzella stroked a double to right field and was thrown out at third before scoring Jason Kondra and Euris Turbi as Old Westbury went up 6-3.

Baruch scored their final run in the fifth inning off a double to right field by Peter Dinolfo that tallied John Avona for the score. Old Westbury tacked on one run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to secure the victory. In the seventh, Edwin Pena singled home Albert Bevacqua from third base for Old Westbury's seventh run of the game. Two more runs came in the next inning as Jason Kondra singled to center, stole second and scored due to an error the very next at-bat. Old Westbury's ninth run came off the bat of Albert Bevaqua, who lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Manzella from third.

Jason Kondra led Old Westbury's offensive with a 3-for-4 day at the plate. Kondra scored two runs, drove in one and stole two bases while Joe Manzella hit a pair of doubles, two RBI and score one run in going 2-for-4. Josef Schaetzle drove in two runs and score one and went 2-for-4. Albert Bevacqua and Edwin Pena each hit 2-for-4 with one RBI.

Peter Dinolfo, Richard Melendez and Ronnie Rojas each collected two hits to lead Baruch. Dinolfo went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two runs scored, two walks and drove in one run.

OW starter Bobby Hugli earned the victory to improve to 1-0 on the year. Hugli tossed 5.0 innings and struck out six while scattering nine hits, giving up four runs (three earned). Frank DiMaria worked 3.0 innings of solid no-hit relief and sat down four batters on strikes. William Campbell faced three batters to close out the ninth inning.

Jeffrey Merker took the loss for Baruch and dropped to 0-1 on the season. Merker lasted 6.1 innings and surrendered 11 hits, seven runs (five earned) and two walks. Jason Berliner pitched 1.2 innings in relief of Merker and gave up two unearned runs on two hits.

The Panthers will return to the field on Friday, April 2 for a non-conference affair with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. at Robinson Field in Troy, New York. Tune in for the live broadcast by visiting www.wrpi.org and watch live stats at www.sidearmstats.com/rpi/baseball/index.htm  

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