WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Dutchmen tried to rally in the ninth with the bases loaded but Justin D'Amato went for the complete game shutout, striking out nine and conceding one walk, giving the Dutchmen a 6-0 defeat at Land of Lakes Complex Saturday afternoon.
The pitchers featured lefty Justin D'Amato and righty
Dan Friedman. D'Amato was efficient early as he was able to retire the side in the first two innings. Friedman on the other hand only surrendered a walk in the first inning but found himself in trouble in the second. Fahy reached on a leadoff walk stole second. Barley came to the plate as Friedman's pitch got away from him and found the backstop as Fahy advanced to third. Friedman was able to register an out but surrendered a sacrifice fly to left field to give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.
In the following inning, the Dutchmen were able to get runners on first and second with one out on a single by
Jeff Grasso and a walk by
Jesse Galina. However, D'Amato was able to strikeout
Tyler Heck and get
Dylan Katz-Wicks to foul out to right field to get out of the jam.
St. John Fisher was able to do some damage in the bottom of the third with two outs as Rush and Matt Creenan reached on back-to-back singles. Fahy was able to reach on an error to load the bases. Friedman had another wild pitch, which allowed everyone to advance to give the Cardinals a 2-0 edge. After a Barley walk to load the bases, Friedman was able to strikeout Ben Bostick for the second time to escape any further damage.
Sean Osterman added on another run for the Cardinals as St. John Fisher slowly increased their lead in the fourth as he roped a double to score Mike Roman to make it 4-0.
Albert Fiorenza made his first collegiate start, as the freshman was able to limit the damage for the Dutchmen to just one run.
Fiorenza settled in as he retired the side in order in the fifth inning and allowed just one runner on a walk in the sixth. The Cardinals were able to get to Fiorenza in the seventh inning as a leadoff single lead to an eventual sacrifice fly by Fahy to increase St. John Fisher's lead to five. Roman tacked on another run as a single to left field scored Eric Luisi to pad the lead to six.
Matt McGavick was opted to relieve Fiorenza in which McGavick was able to get the Dutchmen out of the inning.
D'Amato continued to hinder the Dutchmen offense as he retired 15 batters in a row. With a 6-0 lead entering the final inning, Union was able to get some offense going.
Anders Goetz,
Tyler Heck and
Dylan Katz-Wicks were all able to reach base on singles with nobody out. However, D'Amato struck out the following two batters and forced a groundout to preserve the shutout.
D'Amato improves to 2-0 on the season while Friedman drops his first start of the season.
Union will conclude their time at the RussMat Invitational as they take on Sewanee: The University of the South tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.
Union 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4
St. John Fisher 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 X 6 7 0
E - Katz-Wicks; Grasso; Goetz; Fiorenza. LOB - UNION 5; Fisher 12. 2B - Osterman. HBP - Rush;
Luisi; Roman. SH - Ross. SF - Fahy; Barley. SB - Creenan; Fahy.
Strikeouts - Heck; Esposito 3; Peretti 2; Faber 2; Barretto; Grasso; Osterman; Fahy; Moore;
Bostick 2; Ross. Walks - Galina; Roeder; Creenan; Fahy; Barley; Roman.
