Jersey City, NJ – The pitching staff for the SUNY Brockport baseball team was fantastic in Saturday's season opening win over New Jersey City University. Brockport earned the 8-1 victory to start the year 1-0, getting 16 strikeouts from the men on the hill.
Andrew Huffman (1-0) got the start on the mound, throwing 4.1 innings to rack up eight strikeouts.
Justin DelVecchio was given the ball in the fifth, as he struck out seven of the ten batters he faced in just 2.2 innings of work.
Cooper Meldrim also had a strikeout in the season opener, pitching two full innings in the win.
Tom Kretzler was 1-for-2 at the plate with two RBIs and one run scored.
Ryan Mansell was a problem on the bases, stealing three bases in the contest and scoring three runs.
Ryan Voight hit the only extra base knock of the day for Brockport, going 1-for-5 with an RBI double in the second.
Nicholas Pastore was 1-for-2 and drew two walks as the second batter in the lineup on Saturday. Pastore scored two runs, stole a base, and was credited with an RBI in the contest.
James Houlahan also had an RBI on the day thanks to a sacrifice fly out in the third inning.
The Golden Eagles got the season started with a 1-0 lead in the first inning. They extended the lead to 4-0 by the end of the third inning, as Huffman had already struck out seven NJCU batters to take the lead into the fourth.
Brockport would make it a 5-0 game in the fourth inning, taking advantage of an error committed by the New Jersey City fielders. Although the team didn't score for the next few innings, DelVecchio's work on the mound helped keep NJCU scoreless through eight innings. The Green and Gold didn't give up a run until the bottom of the ninth, but NJCU did not have time for a rally.
New Jersey City had several miscues on the mound and defensively. The home team walked eight batters, including six hit by pitch situations, and two errors. On the flip side, Brockport's pitching staff walked only five batters and played a clean game defensively with no errors.
After a win in the season opener against NJCU, the Golden Eagles are on the road for more action on Sunday. They take on Kean University down in Union, NJ for a 12 pm start as opening weekend continues.
