Box Score
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - It took just over two weeks to decide but the D'Youville baseball team held off the College of Staten Island, 3-2, to win the third game of an East Coast Conference series, taking two of the three games from the Dolphins. Sunday's victory, which was originally scheduled as the first game on April 16th's doubleheader, improves the Saints to 14-20 on the season and 7-11 in conference play.
The Saints struck first in the top of the first inning when sophomore Ethan Hammond drove in sophomore Alex Dzimian on an RBI single to left field. Dzimian reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, and then advanced to third on a throwing error by the Dolphin's catcher.
Junior Craig Oliver provided a jolt to the D'Youville lineup with his first home run of the season, a two-run blast over the left-field fence to put the Saints ahead 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning. A transfer from Allan Hancock College (Calif.), Oliver's home run was the first of his collegiate career.
RBI singles from the Dolphins (10-23, 3-15 ECC) in the eighth and ninth innings cut the D'Youville lead to one run. Still ahead by one with CSI runners on first and second an no out outs, Oliver turned a 6-3 ground ball double play to pick up two much-needed outs for the D'Youville defense. With the tying run advancing to third on the double play and 90 feet away from scoring, graduate transfer Noah Welch got his first save of the season with a fly-out to center field.
In his third start of the season, junior Kyle Blunt (W, 2-0) picked up his second win on the bump … Blunt tossed five-shutout innings before handing the ball off to freshman Samuel Worthen who struck out two batters in his three-inning relief appearance. … Welch got the save by recording all three outs in the ninth inning.
Three Saints hit safely multiple times in Sunday's victory and were led by Hammond (3-for-5, RBI), Oliver (2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI), and freshman Alec Boucher (2-for-4, BB) … Sophomore Jeremy Glinski reached base on four walks in the game as well.
The Saints are back on the road and will wrap up the regular season next weekend when they take on Molloy for a three-game ECC series. Play gets underway on Friday, May 6 at 3:30 p.m. from Rockville Centre, N.Y.
