Greenville, PA - The D'Youville Baseball Team opened up their season Saturday afternoon against Thiel College losing a doubleheader to the Tomcats by the finals of 5-2 and 10-4.

Kyle Taylor (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) led off the first inning of D'Youville baseball in the 2015 season, but neither he nor the rest of the team could reach base in the first. Thiel would put up 1 run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead at the end of the first. 

Mike Calandra (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville) would be the first baserunner of the season for D'Youville after being hit by a pitch. The next batter, Nick Ivanoff (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) would reach base on a fielding error. Despite two runners on base with no outs, the Spartans would fail to put a run on the board in the inning. The Tomcats would be unable to put any runs on the board either, still leading the game at 1-0.

Donnie Speranza (St. James, NY/Smithtown East) would take over for Dan Fox (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) in the third inning, giving up 2 hits and a run. Speranza would give up his second run in as many innings in the fourth inning, bringing the score to 3-0 Thiel.

In the fifth inning, the Spartan bats would come alive. Travis Macrides (Manlius, NY/Fayetteville-Manlius) would reach base on a fielding error from the Thiel shortstop. After a Jason Hart (Batavia, NY/Notre Dame) single, followed by a sac bunt by Taylor, Matt Wendling (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) would come up and give Macrides the opportunity to score on a throwing error form the Tomcat third baseman. Jordan Iannarelli (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) walked to load the bases, and the next batter, Eric Simoncelli (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg), walked to force in Hart from third. The two runs would make the game 3-2 Thiel at the end of the top of the fifth.

The Tomcats would add 2 more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Pitcher Steve Vik (Hopkins, SC/Lower Richland) came in relief of Speranza in the inning. In the sixth and seventh innings, the two teams would add no more runs and Thiel would win the game by the final score of 5-2.

Fox would pick up the loss after going 2 innings and allowing 1 run. Simoncelli recorded 2 of the 4 team's hits, with Justin Losowski (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) and Hart picking up their first two hits as collegiate players.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Thiel took the lead in the second inning at 1-0, but D'Youville would answer back in the second inning. Macrides drove in Calandra from third on a double after Nick Stimpfel (Aquebogue, NY/Riverhead) moved Calandra him there on a fielder's choice. Hart was the next batter up and walked, loading the bases. Taylor had a sac fly into right, scoring Stimpfel. Wendling, the next batter, singled to left center, scoring Macrides. The Spartans would end the inning with the lead, up on the Tomcats 3-1.

In the second, Thiel would take the lead by adding 3 of their own runs. With another run in the fourth, the Tomcats would hold a 5-3 lead over the vising Spartans to begin the fifth inning. Another 2 runs would be tacked on to the to the Tomcat lead, with the total coming to 7-3. Simoncelli would score on a wild pitch in the sixth inning, but Thiel would get 3 more runs in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 10-4, and would win the game by that final score.

Simoncelli and Ivanoff picked up 2 hits each in the game, with Ivanoff recording his first collegiate hit. Macrides also knocked in his first collegiate RBI on his first hit. Chris Ferril (Buffalo, NY/DaVinci) and Jeff Turner (Lackawanna, NY/Lackawanna) saw time on the mound for D'Youville. Ivanoff was given the loss in 3 innings of work.

The next pair of games comes on Sunday, March 22^nd at Washington College at 12pm and 2:30pm.