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Box Score 2
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - On the back of a nearly unhittable outing from freshman Chris AuClair (3-2) and a 17-hit barrage from the offense, the D'Youville baseball team grabbed another milestone win this season, a 14-3 victory over Bridgeport for their first-ever East Coast Conference triumph. The Saints were denied the doubleheader sweep, falling 9-5, in game two after Bridgeport scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning to flip a one-run D'Youville lead into a four-run deficit. After trading wins on Saturday, the Saints move to 7-10 overall and 1-4 in the ECC.
The D'Youville offense scored early and often in Saturday's opener. The Saints scored one run in the first inning on their way to scoring at least one run in each of the eight innings they went to the plate. Sophomore Jeremy Glinski scratched the first run across with an RBI single.
Back-to-back RBI base hits from freshman Dillon Crook and sophomore Alex Dzimian added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning.
After adding one more in the third inning, the Saints were back for more with two more runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings. An infield single from senior George Farid highlighted the scoring in the fourth and a two-run double from Glinski in the fifth gave D'Youville an 8-0 cushion.
AuClair stifled the Purple Knight offense in his third win of the season … The freshman from Baldwinsville, N.Y. fanned a career-high 12 batters and only surrendered two hits in 8.0 innings … Junior Kyle Blunt (1.0 inning) pitched the ninth inning in relief of AuClair.
Five Saints hit safely multiple times in the milestone victory. Dzimian (3-for-4, 2 RBI) paced D'Youville at the plate and was followed up by sophomore Caden Strobel (2-for-3, 2 RBI), sophomore Ethan Hammond (2-for-4), and Glinski (2-for-5, 2B, 4 RBI).
The Purple Knights (10-15, 2-3 ECC) struck first in game two with a solo home run in the top of the first inning.
Farid answered in the home half of the frame with a solo home run of his own to left field. Farid's third blast of the season kickstarted a three-run inning for the Saints as Glinksi drove another run across with a triple to right-center. Glinski came around to score on a sacrifice fly courtesy of freshman Alec Boucher.
D'Youville made it a 5-2 game in the bottom of the third inning as Boucher drove a run in on a ground-rule double to right field. Strobel tacked on one more with a sacrifice fly.
Bridgeport chipped away at D'Youville's three-run lead with two runs in the top of the fourth before breaking open for five runs in the seventh and final inning to force the Saints another trip to the plate.
In the bottom of the seventh inning with one out, the Saints were able to bring the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded but were unable to push any runs across.
Freshman Harrison Lough got the starting nod in game two and went three innings and allowed three earned runs on four hits. Freshman Zach Penner (3.0 innings), Dzimian (0.2 innings), and freshman Samuel Worthen (0.1 innings) each pitched in relief of Lough.
Hammond (3-for-4) and Glinski (3-for-4, 3B, RBI) led the way with Crook (2-for-3) also hitting safely multiple times.
The Saints and Purple Knights wrap up their three-game series tomorrow. First pitch from Bobo Field is set for 12 p.m.
