The Old Westbury baseball team split a Skyline Conference doubleheader against St. Joseph's LI, who was previously undefeated in conference play. The team moves to 7-17 overall, and 5-7 in the Skyline.
Game One: Old Westbury 11, St. Joseph's LI 4
St. Joseph's opened the scoring in the first inning with three consecutive hits to start the game. Gugliuzzo led off the inning with a triple to right center field, before Sanguedol and Forbes followed with back-to-back home runs for a 3-0 lead.
Old Westbury responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Jamal Ritter (2-for-4, RBI, 2 R) and Jacob Taormina (2-for-3, RBI, R) both hit singles to right field, and Jacob Ford (1-for-4, 3 RBI, R) hit a three-run home run to right center field. In the bottom of the second inning, Charlie Eisele (2-for-4, RBI, R) doubled to center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a passed ball.
With a 4-3 lead, the Panthers added four more insurance runs in the bottom of the third inning. Oscar Fajardo (2-for-3, 2 R) doubled to right center field and Shaun Kaminski (1-for-2, RBI, R) brought home the run with a single. Jaime Barrios (1-for-2, RBI, 2 R) hit a double to left field to put runners on second and third. Eisele hit his second hit of the game to score Kaminski and move Barrios to third. Marcello Arrigo (1-for-3) walked and Ritter singled to load the bases for Old Westbury. Taormina walked to score a run, before St. Joseph's got out of the inning with a double play.
Old Westbury scored one more run in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, inning. The Panthers scored runs in all six innings of the game, and totaled 13 hits.
Patrick Quinn pitched a complete game to earn the win on the mound for Old Westbury. He allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks and struck out eight.
Game Two: Old Westbury 8, St. Joseph's 10
After a scoreless first inning on both sides, St. Joseph's scored first with five runs in the top of the second inning. Three straight walks given up by Joseph Bekios (2 IP, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO) loaded the bases for the Golden Eagles. Hermes Abreu tripled past a diving right fielder to clear the bases, and John Thatcher hit a sacrifice fly to score Abreu. Paul Gugliuzzo doubled to center field and Brian Forbes later hit a double to bring in another run.
Old Westbury scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning. Jaime Barrios (2-for-4, RBI, 2 R) started the inning with a single to center field, and three straight walks given up by St. Joseph's allowed one run.
The Panthers entered the bottom of the fourth inning trailing 5-1. Paul DePaulis (0-for-3, RBI, R) reached base on a hit by pitch, Jamal Ritter (1-for-5, R) hit an infield single to the shortstop, and Oscar Fajardo (1-for-3, 2 R) walked to load the bases. Drew Robertson (2-for-4, 4 RBI, R) hit a grand slam to left center field to tie the game at 5-5, his second home run of the season.
St. Joseph's had another five-run inning in the top of the seventh off of Joshua Cruz. The Golden Eagles put together five hits, and a defensive error allowed two unearned runs to score. Old Westbury scored a run in the seventh, and two runs in the eighth but fell short of making the comeback.
Joshua Cruz was credited with the loss on the mound. He allowed five runs, three unearned, on seven hits and two walks.
