NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - In what could best be described as an offensive eruption, the American International College baseball team split a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader with Southern Connecticut State University on Friday, April 18, falling 15-13 in the opener before scoring a 24-7 win in the finale.
AIC is now 13-17 overall and 7-7 in the NE10.
Runs started piling up quickly for both sides in game one, as the Owls took a 1-0 lead in the first before Aidan Streeter and Sam Tanous drove in teammates for AIC for a 2-1 advantage after the top of the second.
The hosts scored an unearned run in the third, but AIC countered with a two-run single by Yeudy Ramirez in the fourth. In the fifth, the Owls hit an RBI double, countered by a Josh Frometa RBI single in the next half-inning of play that scored Ramirez.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Owls took flight. They put together five hits and three walks, which in conjunction with three errors and two wlid pitches, allowed them to score eight times and take an 11-5 lead. They also tacked a run on in the seventh.
AIC was undaunted, and climbed all the way out of the hole. Back-to-back free passes - Leandro Guevara walked and Nick Serce was hit by a pitch - put two on, and Kiernan Caffrey and Brendan Edvardsen drove them in with a single and a double. Streeter walked to pack the bases, and Tanous singled to drive in two. Cole Patterson then walked, and two batters later, Frometa drove in a run with a hit, briging Guevara back to the plate. His deep fly out allowed Patterson to score to tie the game.
Just as quickly, the Owls regained the edge, with a walk, throwing error, and two singles pushing three across in the bottom of the eighth. AIC put up a fight in the ninth, with Edvardsen doubling and Streeter singling to bring the tying run to the dish, and Tanous scored Edvardsen on an RBI groundout, but AIC could not find the final two runs and fell 15-13.
In game two, AIC left a runner at third in the first inning, and the Owls failed to score despite loading the bases in the second. The Yellow Jackets then broke the ice in a massive way in the third, as the team batted around without recording an out.
Ramirez and Frometa singled, and Guevara doubled to score Ramirez. Serce then doubled to plate Frometa and Guevara, and AIC continued to add baserunners as Caffrey reached on a fielder's choice and Edvardsen singled Serce in. Richie Segura attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but the throw went awry to load the bases for Tanous, who drove in a pair with a single to left, and Patterson put a bunt down, reaching when the pitcher threw it away, which also allowed Segura to score. Frometa, in his second plate appearance of the inning, added to the scoring with a sacrifice fly, and another Guevara hit scored Patterson for the 9-0 lead.
The Owls quickly put two on the board with a single, double, and single in their half of the third, but AIC pulled away further in the fourth. Edvardsen doubled and Segura walked, with Tanous following with an RBI single. He and Segura then took off to steal second and third, and not only succeeded, but Segura was able to come home as the catcher overthrew the bag. Ramirez drove in Tanous, and Frometa smashed a home run to put AIC up 14-2.
Southern Connecticut posted single runs in the fourth and fifth, and after a scoreless sixth the offenses got back at it, with both teams scoring two in the seventh. Segura drove in Edvardsen and Serce that inning with a base knock. In the eighth, AIC tacked on three more, with a Frometa sacrifice fly and a Serce longball.
Just to put a bow on it, AIC scored five more in the ninth. Patterson drove an RBI single to the left side, and Ramirez followed by crushing a three-run shot over the fence. Finally, Justin Oquendo added to the total with an RBI double for AIC's 24th run of the game. The Owls added a solo home run in the last half-inning for the 24-7 final.
AIC's 24 runs set a new season best, and are the most scored in one game by the Yellow Jackets in the career of Head Baseball Coach Nick Callini. The last time the baseball team scored more runs was more than three decades ago, in April of 1994 when the Yellow Jackets defeated then-Northeast-10 Conference rival Quinnipiac University 27-7.
The Yellow Jackets and Owls play the rubber match of the season series, as well as an additional nonconference game, on Saturday, April 19. First pitch is set for noon.
